The “Anglican pannychida” for King Constantine of Greece

Publié le 3 mars 2024 par Theophylactère

We remind that that the whole blog is protected by copyright laws. It is forbidden to copy articles, even if you mention the source.

Ελληνική έκδοση

The King Constantine (Source: www.newmyroyals.com)

Constantine, the former King of Greece died almost one year ago on January 10^th, 2023. In order to honour his memory, on February 27^th, 2024, a service was held in London. The event was held in presence of several family members of his family like his widow, his children, his sisters, emeritus Queen of Spain Sofia and the princess Irene and several members of royal families. One could have expected an orthodox pannychida in the Greek orthodox cathedral of London, maybe followed by some speeches, since after all, the former king was orthodox. At least officially.

Surprisingly the ceremony was quite different. The name of the service was “Thanksgiving service for the life of his majesty King Constantine of the hellenes”. Even if we are not knowledgeable of all Anglican rites, and could not find a prayer service with such a name in the Book of Common Prayer, a search on the Internet with the words “Thanksgiving service for the life” indicates that this type of religious service for the deceased is quite common in the Anglican church. It seems that its structure is quite flexible: it can be made up with readings from the Bible, religious songs, poems and can include speeches. What is sure is that this service is without doubt a religious service.

How did it take place? It took place in an Anglican church, the Saint George Chapel of Windsor. The president of the ceremony was The Right Reverend Dr Christopher Cocksworth, Dean of Windsor, i.e an Anglican clergyman and the choir was the Anglican choir of saint George Chapel.

The structure of the service made available by the royal house was the following:

Organ music before the service
Introit: poem of Mikhail Lermontov to the Mother of God, on music by Sir John Tavener
Bidding by the The Right Reverend Dr Christopher Cocksworth, Dean of Windsor
Hymn by Words John Whittier (1807–92)
First Reading Ithaka by C. P. Cavafy read by Their Royal Highnesses Princess Theodora, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Alexía and Prince Philippos
Ave Maria of Schubert
Second Reading Revelation 21. 1–7 that was supposed be read by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (who could not attend the ceremony)
Other hymn by John Ellerton (1826–93)
Address : speech by The Right Honourable The Lord Soames of Fletching
Hymn: “Amazing Grace”
Kontakion of the Departed
Prayers : the first two by the Dean of Windsor, the next third by His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain and the final one said together by both
Prayer : Our Father
Music
Hymn : “I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above…” by Cecil Spring-Rice (1859–1918)
Blessing
National anthem : “God save the King”
Organ music (end of the service)

As we can see, an Anglican church and an Anglican ceremony led by an Anglican cleric, with some participation of the orthodox bishop with the insertion of some orthodox elements were used. Why? Was it the wish of the late King or a wish of his family? Whatever the answer might be, it shows once more time a loss of orthodox conscience within world orthodoxy, from the clergy (here the Greek archbishop) and from the laymen (here the royal family). This is another event that confirms that world orthodoxy is tending to merge with other christian heresies.

All persons who follow a bit the life of “orthodox” royal families will have already noticed that most of them have not been serious in their orthodox faith for several decades. This can be seen in the following facts:

being the god-parent of heterodox children (the King Constantine was for instance Prince William’s godfather)
choosing an heterodox as godparent,
conversions to a heterodox faith for the purpose of marriage (Queen Sofia of Spain converted from orthodoxy to catholicism to marry the heir of the throne Juan Carlos, the late prince Philip Of Edinburgh also converted from orthodoxy to anglicanism in order to marry the future Queen Elizabeth II)
entering in mixed marriages

However, it seems to us that it is the first time that a non-orthodox service is celebrated for an orthodox instead of the standard orthodox service. Let us hope that those who are serious orthodox and support the monarchy in Greece will draw the right conclusions from this.

Here are some pictures from the event (more pictures are available on the sites listed below):

An ecumenical procession (1) [Source: https://www.libertaddigital.com]

An ecumenical procession (2) : it is possible to see the Greek archbishop and behind him the Anglican clergy
[source: https://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/]

Sources

Dailymail article [accessed on 03/03/2024]: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-13130815/king-constantine-memorial-live-prince-william-camilla.html

Dailymail article [accessed on 03/03/2024]: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13131079/royal-guests-pews-st-george-chapel-king-constantine-greece-memorial-service.html

Libertad Digital article [accessed on 03/03/2024]: https://www.libertaddigital.com/chic/corazon/2024-02-27/reyes-felipe-letizia-londres-misa-constantinto-grecia-rey-juan-carlos-reina-sofia-7101933/

Le Figaro article [accessed on on 03/03/2024]: https://madame.lefigaro.fr/celebrites/actu-people/hommage-au-roi-constantin-de-grece-en-images-les-tetes-couronnees-d-europe-reunies-a-windsor-20240228

Site of the Greek royal family [accessed on on 03/03/2024]: https://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/announcement-en.html

The booklet with the content of the service is available at the following sites:

https://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/images/pdf/Order-of-Service-Thanksgiving-HM-King-Constantine-27th-February-2024.pdf

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-13130815/king-constantine-memorial-live-prince-william-camilla.html