A "Royal Task"

Excerpts from the address delivered at St. Paul's Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie:

"Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made: the Prince and Princess on their wedding day. But fairy tales usually end at this point with the simple phrase 'They lived happily ever after.' This may be because fairy tales regard marriage as an anticlimax after the romance of courtship. This is not the Christian view. Our faith sees the wedding day not as the place of arrival but the place where the adventure really begins...

"Marriage is first of all a new creation for the partners themselves ... But any marriage which is turned in upon itself, in which the bride and groom simply gaze obsessively at one another, goes sour after a time. A marriage which really works is one which works for others ... If we solved all our economic problems and failed to build loving families, it would profit us nothing, because the family is the place where the future is created good and full of love--or deformed.

"Those who are married live happily ever after the wedding day if they persevere in the real adventure, which is the royal task of creating each other and creating a more loving world ... All couples on their wedding day are 'royal couples' and stand for the truth that we help to shape this world and are not just its victims...

"This is our prayer for Charles and Diana. May the burdens we lay on them be matched by the love with which we support them in the years to come. And however long they live, may they always know that when they pledged themselves to each other before the altar of God, they were surrounded and supported not by mere spectators but by the sincere affection and active prayer of millions of friends. Thanks be to God."

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