‘He took the hand he was dealt and followed its call’
PRINCE PHILIP showed a ‘remarkable willingness to take the hand he was dealt in life’, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
The Most Rev Justin Welby told the congregation at a remembrance service for the duke at Canterbury Cathedral that words were not enough to ‘reach into the depth of sorrow that goes into bereavement’.
And he added: ‘It is not obliterated by the reality of a very long life remarkably led, nor is the predictability of death’s arrival a softening of the blow. Loss is loss.
‘For His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, there was a willingness, a remarkable willingness, to take the hand he was dealt in life, and straightforwardly to follow its call. To search its meaning, to go out and on as sent, to inquire and think, to trust and to pray.’
Dr John Sentamu, the former Archbishop of York, said the duke’s marriage to the Queen was so strong because they were ‘deeply rooted in Christ’.
He said he and Philip had discussed faith when the prince was troubled about his children and their marriages.
‘He really was feeling very, very sorry for some of the things that were happening in his family – particularly his sons,’ Dr Sentamu told The Andrew Marr Show. He said the duke had sought spiritual
advice, then had asked him to pray for his children.
Dr Sentamu added: ‘There was this unbelievable depth of his rootedness, because (Philip) was so rooted in Christ, he didn’t have any problem in relating to people about their faith or people who didn’t believe at all.
‘His faith was so strong, rooted in Christ, rooted in reality, rooted in his family, that actually he could be a free person. I have not met a couple that are so free – Her Majesty is exactly the same.’
But he joked Philip would have appreciated his shortened funeral service – because he ‘could not stand what he called “long church”’.