Her Majesty The Queen

Buckingham Palace

Your Majesty,

Allow me, on behalf of our diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, to express our sincere condolences to you and your family on the death of HRH Prince Philip. To lose someone with whom one has been so closely united for so long is indeed hard to bear, and we pray that the Lord will grant Your Majesty His strength and comfort at this sad time.

Prince Philip’s life, from his wartime service in the Royal Navy, through the many years of active public service, to the quieter years of retirement has been a remarkable and inspiring example of selfless dedication to duty. It is hardly possible to enumerate all the people of this and the other countries of the Commonwealth and beyond who have benefited from his contribution in so many ways. Your Majesty has been blessed to have had such a man at your side, faithfully supporting you in the life of service to which you dedicated yourself at your coronation.

Conscious of your husband’s deep connection to the Orthodox Faith, we pray that the Lord will receive his soul in the mansions of the righteous, ‘where there is no sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting’. Furthermore, it being our custom to pray for Your Majesty at all our services, we shall offer this prayer with special intensity in these days, asking that the light of the Resurrection of Christ will disperse the shadows of this passing life.

With deep respect,

+MATTHEW

Bishop of Sourozh