Letter to the Editor
Dear Sir,
On Friday 9 September, my wife and I attended the “Evensong with Prayers for her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11” at Manchester Cathedral. While I have found myself very moved and tearful by her death, I could not help but notice the theological Romish clutter amongst the “Prayers of Intercession”. The service sheet read like so;
“Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our sister Elizabeth” and again “Heavenly Father, into whose hands Jesus Christ commended his spirit at the last hour: into those same hands we now commend your servant Elizabeth, that death may be for her the gate to life and to eternal fellowship with you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
As a member of the Church of England and in the diocese of Manchester I see little in those prayers but a Romish papal influence. Jesus did indeed commend His Spirit into the hands of the Father, but He did that for Himself and before His own sacrificial death. What right or authority does a priest or clergy have to commend anyone who has already died into the hands of the Father? When the thief on the cross said ‘Remember me when you come into your kingdom’ he requested that not for anyone else but for himself.
Does the clergy now consider itself in place of Christ?
While I am apt to make my complaint to Manchester Cathedral, I should once the procession has calmed down.
Regards,
Simon Peter Sutherland
Manchester
