Royal Maundy - Royal Maundy Today

Royal Maundy Today

Queen Elizabeth views the service as an important part of her devotional life, and it is the only occasion on which the Queen visits others to make awards; usually recipients of honours come to her. According to Ronald Allison and Sarah Riddell in their The Royal Encyclopedia, the service "has become the occasion of a royal pilgrimage to different parts of the country". The Queen has directed that the service not be held in London more often than once in ten years. Westminster Abbey was the site of the 2011 Royal Maundy; it had previously hosted it in 2001. The 2011 service was televised live for the first time.

Today the recipients are pensioners, chosen on an interdenominational basis from various Christian churches for their service to their churches and communities. In most years, recipients are nominated by Christian clergy of various denominations in the diocese where the service is held. In 2011, however, as well as recipients representing Westminster Abbey, forty recipients came from the Anglican Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe, which covers continental Europe, and forty from the Diocese of Sodor and Man, which consists of the Isle of Man. Robert Patterson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, while at a conference of Anglican bishops had invited the Queen to his cathedral for Maundy services; he received word that this would be too difficult, but that his diocese could nominate recipients. For 2012, in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, recipients were selected from all 44 dioceses in the United Kingdom for the service at York Minster.

The Yeomen of the Guard are present at the ceremony and serve as "Indoor Guard"; the choir of the Chapel Royal is also present. Six wandsmen, whose original function is uncertain, guide the recipients to their places and render any other help which is needed. Present at the ceremony are four Maundy Children (formally "Children of the Royal Almonry"), two boys and two girls. The original Maundy Children were four old men, charity recipients, whose sole duty was to attend at the Royal Maundy service wearing linen scarves. As their fees for the service amounted to over twenty pounds per year, this was deemed an abuse of charity, and in 1808 the old men were pensioned off and replaced by actual children. The first children appointed from 1808 did not personally attend the service, but their parents received five guineas per year to aid in their education until the age of fourteen, and four other children, from schools in the City of Westminster represented them at the service. Today, the Maundy Children are chosen from religious and state schools, and receive a set of Maundy coins for their participation. Officials in the Maundy service wear towels over their clothing, worn over the shoulder and tied at the waist. The linen towels were once retained by their wearers, but since 1883, the same towels, laundered each year, have been used.

Until 1979, the Queen made two distributions of money in leather purses to each recipient. The first distribution, given to women in green purses and to men in white, was of an allowance in lieu of the clothing formerly given. The white purses used for the clothing allowance may be distinguished from the white purses which contained Maundy money, as the former was tied with a short green string; the latter bears a long red string. The clothing allowance purses had been introduced in 1936; prior to that, the clothing allowance was distributed in a paper packet. In the second distribution two purses were given by the monarch; the red one contained £1.50 for provisions, once given in kind, and the additional sum of £1 mandated by Elizabeth I. The white purses contained the Maundy money. After 1979, the separate distribution of the clothing allowance was discontinued—the gifts have now been consolidated, and recipients now receive two purses in a single distribution, one white containing the Maundy coins, and one red containing the other money. The distributions were consolidated so as to reduce the physical strain of the ceremony on the Queen as she aged. The red purse contains £1 representing the money for redemption of the monarch's gown, £3 in lieu of the clothing once given, and £1.50 in place of the food once presented, totalling £5.50. In 2011, the £5.50 not given in Maundy money took the form of a £5 coin commemorating the Duke of Edinburgh's ninetieth birthday, and a 50p coin marking the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The £5 coin for 2012 honored the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

One man and one woman are chosen for each year the Queen has lived (including the year she is currently living), and they receive Maundy money equivalent in pence to that number of years. The purses are carried into the church by the Yeomen on silver dishes, held above their heads. The origin of this custom is uncertain but apparently dates from the times when provisions were distributed to the poor; some experts believe the dishes were carried high to stop the poor from grabbing at the food prematurely; others believe that the position was to prevent the congregation from being overwhelmed by the smell of fish.

The Order of Service for Royal Maundy is a simple one. It begins with the reading of John 13:34, which contains the mandatum from which Royal Maundy evolved. It contains two lessons, the first of which (John 13) also recalls the mandatum. The second reading contains that portion of Matthew 25 which describes the Last Judgment. The Queen makes half of the presentations after the first lesson, and half after the second. Anthems, led by the Chapel Royal choir and the local choir, are sung while the distribution is going on, concluding with George Frideric Handel's coronation anthem Zadok the Priest. The Royal Maundy service concludes with prayers, "God Save the Queen" and the blessing. Two hymns are sung; there is no address. Six silver dishes are used to hold the gifts; one, the traditional Maundy Dish, forms part of the Royal Regalia and is held at the Tower of London when not in use. All six dishes date from the reign of Charles II; five of the six have been added to the service since 1971. They are held by the Yeomen as the Queen walks about, greeting recipients and giving them their gifts. The Lord High Almoner receives his only recompense for his position if he attends the Royal Maundy service—a small fee, though payable in Maundy money.

The Pope still performs the pedilavium, as does the Archbishop of Canterbury. In recent years, the pedilavium has become more popular across Christian denominations, and even as a gesture of humility among those serving the poor. Today, the Royal Maundy ceremony involves a considerable security operation, with drains in the area checked. Two 17-year-old boys were arrested in Wakefield in 2005 for popping balloons in the area of the service; as the sound might be mistaken for gunfire.

Mercia Tapsell, a 71-year-old Maundy recipient who participated in the 1992 ceremony at Chester for her work with the Salvation Army, spoke of the ceremony before her death in July of that year:

It surpassed anything that I ever thought. I didn't ever think that I should be in the cathedral with the Queen and all the dignitaries that were there. And the singing, the organ, the Queen, just everything and everybody. It's really been out of this world. Just to hear Zadok the Priest, I think, has lifted me to Cloud Nine, because it's something that I love. And to hear that and to have the Queen pass so close to me. And yes, she smiled. She smiled at me.