Sermon given at a Service to Celebrate the 450th Anniversary of the Collegiate Foundation of St Peter: Friday 21 May 2010

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster: "It is impossible for us to know what Queen Elizabeth I thought when she signed the Charter but it would not be surprising if she had thought of the turmoil the Abbey had undergone in the previous twenty years. The Charter makes it clear that she intended to end the turmoil. Of this renewed Collegiate Church, the Charter says that it is ‘in all future times to endure and to be inviolably observed.’ And so it has been for the past 450 years. There seems every reason to suppose it will continue as long as there is time on earth."