Reverend Justin Welby Receives Coronation Bible

April 26, 2023224 views0

Reverend Justin Welby Receives Coronation Bible

2023-04-26T10:25:42+01:00

By Church News

Reverend Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury has received the specially commissioned King James Bible that will be presented to His Majesty King Charles III during the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6th May.The Coronation Bible will be presented to The King who will then place his hand upon the Bible when he takes the Coronation Oath.A Bible has been presented to the monarch in this way since the joint Coronation of William III and Mary II in 1689. The earliest specially produced Coronation Bible in the Royal Collection is from the Coronation of George III in 1761; since then a new Bible has been produced for each Coronation.When the 1953 Coronation Bible was presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during her Coronation, it was with the words: “We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; This is the royal Law; These are the lively Oracles of God.”Archbishop Justin Welby commissioned Oxford University Press (OUP) to produce the Coronation Bible, which is hand-bound in leather and decorated in gold leaf.The Bible will be kept at Lambeth Palace until it is taken to Westminster Abbey in preparation for the Coronation.Most Reverend Justin Welby, said: “The Coronation will be a service of Christian worship, deeply rooted in the wisdom we find in Scripture. The Bible which will be presented to His Majesty The King is a reminder that Scripture is not just at the heart of the responsibilities he undertakes at the Coronation, but at the heart of Christian life.“On this momentous occasion, the Bible will be the first and most important gift offered to The King. The Scriptures offer a guide and light to all – and I pray that His Majesty will continue to find them in these living words.”Three identical copies of the Bible have been produced – one will be given to The King as a personal copy, and the other two will be placed in the archives of Westminster Abbey and Oxford University Press respectively.After the Coronation, the Bible will be shown in the current Lambeth Palace Library exhibition to mark The King’s Coronation. The exhibition runs until 13th July 2023.ALSO READ: Yoyo Michael Releases Brand New Single