SERMON BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
AT THE SERVICE HELD TO MARK
THE GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY OF
HM QUEEN ELIZABETH AND HRH PHILIP, DUKE OF EDINBURGH
WESTMINSTER ABBEY 20 NOVEMBER 1997

"For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part"

With these magnificent words Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip made their marriage vows to each other in this holy place exactly fifty years ago with the world looking on. In spite of the drabness of that post-war period it was a time to hope, and that wedding was a symbol to the nation and Commonwealth of the promise of better things to come after the darkness of the war years.

And now, fifty years on, we celebrate with them their 'Golden Wedding', and thank God for all they have given to our nation, our Commonwealth and to our world.

Gold is such an appropriate symbol : It expresses stability, endurance, trustworthiness and beauty. As such, it is a fitting symbol to take the weight of meaning of those words : For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part'. For as one anniversary has passed into another, the promises they made then have been kept through the profoundest of changes in personal and national life. The Sovereign of a nation going through such changes, together with her Consort, carries at times, a heavy burden. That is what sovereignty means and it is something they have shouldered together. But our Queen, with the profound sustaining of her husband's encouragement and support, has carried out her duties through all of these with distinction, courage and sacrifice. Never an easy task, those of us looking on have known their vocation to have been at times a hard one. For amidst all the grandeur and magnificence of the office has been the sheer weight of work and responsibility - the times of sorrows and setbacks as well as of joys and triumphs. Today we honour the steady dignity with which they have served us and in which our nation and Commonwealth have been richly blessed.

So it is fitting on this day to say to the couple who made those promises fifty years ago and have kept them amidst such public and onerous burdens, "Thank you. Thank you for the way you have, together, served us in your marriage with such devotion and dedication. And thank you, too, for the gift you have given us, through these times of change, of a marriage which has endured".

Indeed I hope we might all see today as a celebration of marriage itself , as well as a sharing in your personal joy. For marriage remains a basic building block of any society and the surest foundation of secure family life. It is God's gift to humanity designed both for human happiness and the nurture of children - a conviction which Christians share with those of many other faiths.

The fact that some marriages fail should not lead us to a false deprecation of marriage. It is not something we can afford as a nation to abandon because of the difficulties which may be experienced. Nor, by celebrating marriage as we do today, do we rebuke or dismiss those for whom it has never been a way of life or whose experience of marriage has been neither as long-lasting nor as secure as the one we honour in this service. For the Christian faith encompasses all. It is a faith which believes in the importance of every individual; in fresh starts and the power of the renewing love of God for everyone, whether married or single.

Our Celebration, then, invites joy from us all in recognition of what fifty years of marriage signal - that constancy which Shakespeare celebrated in these incomparable words:

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:-
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken..."

Never shaken. Indeed, in contemplating this gift of marriage our Christian faith encourages us to reflect beyond this life to the relationship between God and humankind in the life to come. There is a lovely poem written by a seventeenth century wife to her husband, which catches this sense that the celebration of a true marriage carries in it the seeds of eternity:

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, we rejoice with you in this moment of special celebration; we thank you for what this day means to the nation as well as to yourselves. We thank you both as you continue together to serve us. May you know continued happiness for many years to come and like that husband and wife of the past, may you 'in love so persever, that when you live no more, you may live ever'. Amen.

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