On Thursday 9th May, 2024 at 11:30am a service of thanksgiving for the lives of Christopher and Kirsty Hudson was held at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street. Download Order of Service (pdf)
The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce delivered the opening:
A very warm welcome to St Bride’s, as we come together to honour the memory and to celebrate the lives of Christopher and Kirsty Hudson.
It is poignant for us to be marking the loss of not one, but two wonderful human beings at this service, both of them outstanding in their respective fields, and loved and respected by all who knew them.
But at the same time, it also feels entirely appropriate to be remembering and giving thanks for a couple whose lives were so deeply interwoven throughout the lifetime that they spent together.
And we have much for which we can be thankful – because the world was so much the richer for their presence within it – and all whose lives they touched were the richer for having known them.
We begin with an opening prayer. Let us pray:
Spirit of God, source of all love, within us and between us; As we come together to give thanks for the lives of Christopher and Kirsty Comfort with your gentleness all who are gathered here today. Thank you for the gift of love, from which we can never be separated; For, although gone from our sight, they will never be absent from our hearts. And when the dark shadows fall, grant us the assurance to know that they are now safe in your care; until we are reunited with them once more in your heavenly presence. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Addresses
Sir David Bell
Michèle Brandreth & Harriet Crawley
Readings
Rowley Hudson read Crossing the bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Ed McDermott read John 14: 1-6
14: 1 “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
3 And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
4 And you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.
Louisa Jencks read an extract from The Best Gardens in Italy: A Traveller’s Guide by Kirsty McLeod and Primrose Bell
Music
The choir & organist of St Bride’s performed the following anthems and songs:
Nimrod from Enigma Variations – Edward Elgar In paradisum from Requiem – Gabriel Fauré Laudate Dominum – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Geistliches Lied – Johannes Brahms The Lord bless you and keep you – John Rutter Into the mystic – Van Morrison arr. Matthew Morley Sheep may safely graze – J S Bach
Hymns
Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Lord of all hopefulness
Tell out, my soul
