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Reuters
BISHOP MICHAEL CURRY.JPG
Reuters
USA News

Exclusive: 'For one brief shining moment, we actually saw humanity lived at its best': Royal wedding preacher pays tribute to Queen

by Kelly Valencia

The presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, Most Rev Michael Curry, who preached at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has added to the tributes to Her Majesty the Queen. 

Speaking to Premier, Bishop Michael praised her life and 70 years of service.

"She has been and is a reminder that human dignity and nobility are possible," he said. 

Bishop Michael was speaking as church leaders across the world honoured the way she lived her Christian faith.

"The tributes that are pouring in at this moment, are not pouring in because people have to write them or have to say them, they're pouring in because, for one brief shining moment, we actually saw humanity lived at its best, through thick and thin through good days and hard days," he said. 

"And it wasn't always easy but this remarkable woman showed us that God's vision of a human life well lived and lived in his honour and service is a life that makes a difference and is worth living. And for that - to God be the glory and thank God Almighty. May she rest in peace and rise in God's eternal love and graciousness." 

Bishop Michael also recalled his brief interaction with the monarch at Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding in 2018. 

He delivered the sermon at the ceremony. 

"The one thing that I would say is that when she was leaving the church, I was sitting where she turned and just looked at me it was just a brief moment. And she smiled and nodded. That said it all then, I mean, for me, it was like a blessing. Like I received a blessing from her.

"The message of that sermon was an attempt to give voice to what I believe is the heart of the Christian gospel: God so loved the world. I mean, this God we're talking about loves this world, and loves all of God's children. And we all have God's creation and creatures and to learn to live in that love is the path to life for us all and I just believe that. And I just have a funny feeling she did too." 

He said the Queen's quiet faith was "a way of love that was lived by commitment to duty and service to others, even at sacrifice to self sometimes".

He went on to encourage Christians to pray for her son, King Charles III. 

"Pray for him, and pray for their family, that even in their sadness, they will know gladness. That even in their sorrow, they will not, as the Bible says, have sorrow as those who are without hope. 

"That they will see the hope that she had, the conviction and belief that she shared, and that people of Britain and the Commonwealth around the world will give thanks that one such as this walked among us, that if God allowed her to do it, then following her example, as she followed in the example of Jesus of Nazareth, we too can live lives of love, and dignity, and beauty and of humanity as God intended." 

The Queen passed away on Thursday surrounded by her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
 

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