By MARTIN PALMER | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-04-15 10:22 Share CLOSE Prince Philip and Martin Palmer at a meeting in Buckingham Palace on April 19, 2017. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Today I am mourning the loss of Prince Philip, someone I worked with for nearly four decades and who was my friend. In that time, I watched him become the inspiration for the largest civil society environmental movement in the world-that of the world s religions.
He was also a man who had a special affection for one of the greatest and most ecological of all religions-Daoism. One of the very last public events he did before he retired at the age of 95 was to welcome the senior leadership of the Chinese Taoist Association to a meeting at Windsor Castle to celebrate the launch of a major eight-year plan by the Taoists to increase their activities to protect nature.
A black commemorative poppy on the bonnet of a car
Credit: AP
SIR – The Duke of Edinburgh, a man of private faith, also used his role to bring together different faith groups. He founded St George’s House in 1966 as a forum for civil society, faith groups and others to debate significant issues.
For many years he presented the Templeton Prize, which recognised outstanding religious and spiritual leadership. He organised an interfaith dialogue between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in 1984, together with Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and Crown Prince El Hassan of Jordan.
He built on this by founding the Alliance of Religions and Conservation in 1995 to mobilise the great faiths to work on environmental challenges. He had the foresight to see that their moral teachings, and 80 per cent of the world’s population, could be part of the solution to social problems.
Senior royals are coming together to ensure the monarch is accompanied by family on future engagements
Those who will be seen at her side are Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
Sources stressed that the Queen, who says Prince Philip s death on Friday has left a huge void in her life, will fulfil as many commitments as possible once the two weeks of official mourning ends on April 22
GYLES BRANDRETH: My introduction to the Queen was disconcerting, to say the least. This is Gyles Brandreth, said Prince Philip cheerily. Apparently, he s writing about you.
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