The Archbishop of Canterbury has described witnessing thousands of mourners queuing to pay their respects to the Queen as “one of the most moving parts of the week”.
Justin Welby shook hands and posed for selfies with dozens of people who were waiting to view the Queen lying in state, and performed a blessing on a 10-year-old girl.
By 10am on Thursday, the queue leading up to Westminster Hall was around three miles long and stretched past London Bridge to HMS Belfast.
Before greeting those in line at The Victoria Tower Gardens in central London, the Archbishop said he was not at all surprised by the turnout and remembered the Queen as someone whose “wisdom was remarkable”.
He told the PA news agency: “She was someone you could trust totally, completely and absolutely, whose wisdom was remarkable, whose experience – I was the seventh Archbishop of Canterbury who she would have known – who really understood things and who prayed.”
Mr Welby also told reporters that seeing thousands of people flood to pay their respects had been “one of the most moving parts of this week”.
“In one sense, the people here stand for all those in the country who would like to be here and can’t be,” he said.
“I think it shows a sense of deep affection for the stability that the Queen represented and gave us.”
Mr Welby added that he was “not in the least” worried about a period of change under a new monarch and a new Prime Minister.
“I’m very, very relaxed about that,” he said.
“His Majesty the King is deeply committed to sticking with the constitution, and it’s very clear that the shift happened seamlessly.
“The strength of the way this country works is seen by the fact we lost both the prime minister and the monarch in a week and government just goes on.”
The Archbishop spoke to police officers and stewards who were manning the queue and paused to perform a blessing on 10-year-old Eva Garcia, who was in line with her father.
Eva, whose family are Anglican and moved to London from the US two weeks ago, told PA the moment was “very special” to her.
Her father, Juan Garcia, 41, added: “Eva is our oldest and it was really amazing.
“To have a leader of the church pray for your child in that way, I was very emotional.”
Retired nurse Alex Swinburne, 58, said she had been queuing since 4.20am and meeting the Archbishop had been a “spiritual moment”.
“It was very special,” she told PA.
“The Queen represented the church, so I think it’s very important that they’re being represented here.
“It felt like a spiritual moment before you go in at this stage, when we’ve all been queueing for so long.”
Christina Watson, 67, who used a walking stick and travelled from Sunderland to pay her respects to the Queen, said meeting the Archbishop was something she would remember for the rest of her life.
