As the Dean of St Davids, the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones took her seat in Westminster Abbey this morning to attend the funeral of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, it’s likely that one over-riding image of the monarch’s humility will have remained with her throughout.
In 1993, as the Queen was on a State visit to Budapest, Dr Jones had the opportunity to see a side of the Queen’s character that only those close to her would normally see.
“As a member of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service for 15 years before my ordination, I was part of the team in the British Embassy that organised her State Visit to Hungary in 1993,” said Dr Jones.
“We were asked to provide an opportunity for her not only to visit a place of Christian worship, but to have time there to pause and pray.
"So we took her to the glorious baroque Cathedral in Kecskemét which is south of Budapest.
"After she had met the Bishop and Dean and discussed the wonderful rococo interior and the challenges of living as Christians under communism, everyone else withdrew. But the Queen took her seat in a pew near the front.
“I remember standing at the back of the Cathedral and watching this small seated figure, profoundly still.
“It seemed that she was utterly rooted and grounded in her prayer and I came to wonder if somehow, knowing that her ultimate identity was the being that she was, being held in the hand of her creator she had freedom to sit a little lighter to the weighty responsibilities of state that history and fate had laid upon her.
“She alone was Queen – no-one else could wear the crown for her – but she knew she did not bear this calling alone.”
After reading maths at Cambridge University, Sarah Rowland Jones joined the diplomatic service and during the following 15 years had postings in the British Embassies in Jordan and Hungary.
Her responsibilities during her London postings at the Foreign Office included energy policy, counter-terrorism and dealing with the European Union.
Whilst in Budapest, she was made a Lieutenant of the Victorian Order (LVO) for her role in organising the Queen’s state visit to Hungary in 1993 which is one of the highest ranking Orders that one can obtain.
It is conferred for extraordinary, important or personal services shown to the Sovereign or to the Royal Family.
Dr Jones left the service in 1996 to pursue her Christian vocation and was awarded the OBE for services to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in January 1997.
Her appointment as Dean of St Davids was announced in November 2017 and she was collated and installed in May 2018.
“The late Queen had a unique connection with St Davids Cathedral," continued Dr Jones.
“As Sovereign, she held the First Canon Cursal Stall in the Quire among the Cathedral Chapter, and she took her place there on some of her four visits to the Cathedral. She was also the first monarch to visit the Cathedral since the Reformation.
“Over the years, we saw and heard her speak ever more explicitly about the centrality of faith to her life. It was not merely that she bore the roles of Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Rather, her faith was woven through all she did and all that she was.
"Indeed, it seemed that faith provided a grounding of who she was, more profound than her calling as Queen. Her identity as a child of God predated her coronation, and that defines her now.”
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