The Primus was a guest on BBC Radio Scotland programme Sunday Morning, where he spoke about his great respect for Her Majesty the Queen and recalled his memories of her influence on his life as a child in Aberdeenshire.
Admitting that the last few days since the Queen’s death had been more emotional than he had imagined, the Primus said: “I was brought up just on the outskirts of Aberdeen and my father worked near the harbour so I spent hours watching Britannia arriving. When the railway line was still running to Ballater, the Royal train would pass the bottom of my garden and when they started to go by car it would pass at the top end of the street.
“For me as a wee boy, who the Queen was didn’t mean that much to me except that this really important and lovely lady wanted to have her holidays where I lived. I also remember occasionally being told when we weren’t having a holiday: ‘You don’t need to go anywhere, you’re having a holiday where the Queen is!’ And the vivid memory I have is of my father saying: ‘If we see them in Ballater, say nothing. They are on holiday.’
“For me, she has always been part of everything. As a priest in the Episcopal Church, we pray every day as part of our order of service for the Queen. I have always assumed that while we were doing that, she was praying for all of us. She did what she did because she believed she was doing it in the service of God.”
Bishop Mark also paid tribute to the Queen for her encouragement from the very start of her reign of a multi-faith future for Britain.
“I have yet to meet any faith leader in Scotland who didn’t feel that she also spoke for them, who loved for and cared for them. It has led to a Scotland which is diverse and accepting of other people’s faith. We all share a love of this place, as she did.”
The Primus was a guest alongside the Very Rev Lorna Hood, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Royal Chaplain, on the programme hosted by Cathy Macdonald.
The full broadcast can be heard here at the 1:08.06 mark.
Later on Sunday, the Primus attended the public proclamation of the new King in Inverness, and on Monday he will attend a service to celebrate the life of The Queen and her connection to Scotland at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
