A long line of faith: Chaplains minister to the thousands waiting to say a final farewell

Sep 17, 2022 by Jill

by Francis Martin, Church Times:

THEY came to the queue in their dog-collars — both those waiting in line, and those ministering to the people waiting to see the Queen lying in state.

On Thursday morning, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York joined the 300-strong multifaith chaplaincy team that had been put together in the days following the Queen’s death (News, 13 September).

Dressed in black clerical shirts and fluorescent tabards emblazoned “Faith Team”, Archbishops Welby and Cottrell were among the Anglican priests to join faith leaders from other denominations and religions in a chaplaincy team serving the queue.

In recent days, the queue has seemed to take on a personality of its own — being described as a “river of humanity”. When I first wandered along it on Thursday afternoon, it snaked down to Blackfriars Bridge; by Friday morning, it had filled Southwark Park, and officials announced that entry to the queue would be paused for at least six hours.

The chaplaincy team was set up by Lambeth Palace in collaboration with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The head of chaplaincy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, Mia Kyte Hilborn, who is leading the team, described it as a “privilege” to be involved.

The chaplains’ duty was to be present not only for those in the queue, but also for those marshalling and policing the event, she said on Thursday. Archbishop Cottrell, who had been out and about with a Sikh chaplain that morning, had been particularly delighted to discover that some of the police on duty were from South Yorkshire, Ms Kyte Hilborn said.

“People beam when they see a chaplain,” she told me — a description that was born out in the testimony of some of the chaplains I met later in the evening, while they enjoyed a cup of tea and a biscuit at the end of their shift.

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