President of Malawi honours Dr David Livingstone
Wednesday, 20th March 2013
Her Excellency Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, attended a Wreathlaying Ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 19th March 2013 on the Bicentenary of the Birth of Dr David Livingstone.
In his Bidding the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said:
We honour a Scot of humble origins, but clear determination and courage. 140 years after his death, he remains respected throughout these islands, and especially in Africa, where, for thirty years, he laboured to spread the Gospel, to explore the land’s secrets, and to map what he discovered. Treating all people as his equals, he worked to abolish the slave trade in Africa.
Douglas Hay, a former CWM (LMS) missionary in Botswana and Governor of the Scottish National Memorial to David Livingstone Trust, read Isaiah 35: 1-10. The Dean read from a sermon preached by the Very Reverend Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, at Westminster Abbey on 19th April 1874, the Sunday after Dr Livingstone’s burial. Tom Greatrex MP read Psalm 121.
The Right Honourable The Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale gave a Reflection and the Address was given by the Right Reverend Albert Bogle, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Wreaths were laid at Dr Livingstone‘s grave in the nave of the Abbey church by the President of Malawi and by Mary Dick-Smith, Elspeth Murdoch and Neil J. Wilson, great-grandchildren of Dr Livingstone.
Prayers were led by the Reverend Michael Macey, Minor Canon and Precentor of Westminster, and said by: the Right Honourable The Lord Steel of Aikwood KT KBE; the Right Reverend Dr James Tengatenga, Bishop of Southern Malawi; the Right Honourable Michael Moore MP, Secretary of State for Scotland; Humza Yousuf MSP, Minister for External Affairs and International Development; and the Reverend Mercy Chilapula, Moderator of Blantyre Synod, Malawi.
During the service Pipe Major Roger Huth, Scots Guards (Retd) played The Fair Maid of Barra.
The organ was played before and after the service by Peter Holder, Organ Scholar.
See also:The Order of Service (PDF, 7MB)
