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Mike Wooldridge presents a service in celebration of the Commonwealth, live from Westminster Abbey in London.

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The Commonwealth Service: Delivering a Common Future

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09/03/2020 GMT

Delivering a Common Future

BBC World Service - The Commonwealth Service, Delivering a Common Future

HM the Queen attends a service in Westminster Abbey in celebration of the Commonwealth.

Her Majesty the Queen attends a service in Westminster Abbey in celebration of the Commonwealth.

The service, which takes place on Commonwealth Day each year, is the largest annual multicultural, multi-faith gathering in the UK. It takes the form of a mixture of testimonies, readings, hymns, and musical performances, based around a theme, in celebration of the Commonwealth’s 54 countries and 2.4 billion people.

This year’s theme, ‘Delivering a Common Future’ reflects the ways in which the governments and people of Commonwealth countries connect and cooperate through networks of friendship and goodwill, particularly in ways which will help to tackle climate change and its impacts.

The service is traditionally attended by the Queen, in her role as Head of the Commonwealth, together with other members of the Royal Family, High Commissioners, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, and dignitaries from across the Commonwealth, as well as senior politicians and around 1000 school children and young people. This year the service includes musical performances by Craig David, Alexandra Burke, and steel band The Melodians, and a reflection by world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua.

Commonwealth Day, held on the second Monday in March each year, is an opportunity for individuals, communities and organisations to promote the Commonwealth’s shared values of peace, democracy and equality, and to celebrate the association’s rich diversity.


Commentator: Eleanor Oldroyd.

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