Charles and Joanna Lumley joining online Canterbury Cathedral Easter services

The Prince of Wales and actress Joanna Lumley will appear in special online Easter Sunday services by Canterbury Cathedral.

With the coronavirus lockdown making traditional church services this weekend impossible, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will also deliver his usual Easter sermon by video.

The Very Rev Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury, said: “We hope these services will give great encouragement to those across the nation and the world who are locked in their homes and feeling isolated on this most important day of the Christian year.

“Already we have seen the benefits of streaming morning and evening prayer each day from our homes and gardens within Canterbury Cathedral’s Precincts, reaching through our website to people across the globe of all denominations and of all faiths and of none in great numbers.”

Recorded at Birkhall, his home in Scotland, Charles will read the Easter Day Gospel from St John chapter 20:1-18.

The prince’s recording will also feature in Westminster Abbey’s Easter Day podcast, part of its popular Abbeycast series.

Mr Welby will deliver his traditional Easter sermon in a video recorded in his flat at Lambeth Palace.

Later on Sunday, Lumley is also contributing a pre-recorded reading of The Road to Emmaus for evening prayer.

The Easter Sunday Eucharist featuring the prince’s Gospel reading and the archbishop’s sermon will be available from 12pm on Easter Sunday on Canterbury Cathedral’s home page at www.canterbury-cathedral.org.

The Easter Sunday evening prayer video with Lumley will be available on the cathedral’s website from 5.30pm.