The Royal Family at the Commonwealth Day Service
Her Majesty the Queen was joined at Westminster Abbey by other senior members of the Royal Family for the annual Commonwealth Day Service. The Commonwealth is comprised of 54 countries where the Queen serves as a ceremonial figurehead. While the head of the commonwealth is not a hereditary title, the heads of Commonwealth nations voted in 2018 for Prince Charles to secede his mother in the role.
Each year, Westminster Abbey holds a service to honour the role that commonwealth nations and citizens of those nations play in the United Kingdom and the world. Each year performers and speakers come together to share some of their native culture and celebrate the commonwealth. This year One Drum, a collective of London Based African master drummers presented Intore, a dance done at Rwandan celebrations.
The service also saw Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua speak about the mix of cultures that the Commonwealth represents and performances by Suli Kuti, Craig David and Alexandra Burke. Readings were also given by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland.
Other royals in attendance included the HRH Prince of Wales, HRH Duchess of Cornwall, TRH Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and TRH Earl and Countess of Wessex.
All of the royals opted out of handshaking this year due to Coronavirus concerns so there were some elbow pats from the Duke of Sussex while the Prince of Wales opted for the namaste greeting. The service officially marked the last engagement for Harry and Meghan as senior royals as they officially step down on March 31st. It is believed that the couple is now returning to Canada to be with Archie who remained there this week in the care of their nanny during the couples final week of royal engagements.
The remaining senior royals which include Camilla, Catherine, Sophie and Anne will be stepping up more as we have seen throughout the New Year. The Duchess of Cornwall has been focusing much of her attention on Domestic violence charities and supporting survivors in the recent months while the Duchess of Cambridge has continued her work in the Early Years sector. The Countess of Wessex has been keeping busy visiting several countries as a champion of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and Princess Anne (repeatedly one of the hardest working royals) has continued working closely with several of her patronages, military appointments and official roles.
In my opinion the most likely time we will see Harry and Meghan back together in the United Kingdom would be for Trooping the Colour, though no announcement has been made if they will attend yet or not. Harry is set to return to London for the London Marathon at the end of April but it seems unlikely Meghan will return to Europe before the 2020 Invictus Games taking place in May in the Hague.
Happy Commonwealth Day! xx