Valley Forge To Host Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Service

VALLEY FORGE, PA — A memorial service for Britain's late monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, will be held at Valley Forge's Washington Memorial Chapel, hallowed grounds for American history and monument to the nation's independence from the empire.

The event will be held on Monday, Sept. 19 at 11:30 a.m. It's co-hosted with the British Officers Club of Philadelphia.

The service will be followed by "prayers for accession" for Elizabeth's son, the new King Charles III. A traditional English afternoon tea reception will take place after the ceremonies.

RELATED: Thousands Support PA Professor Who Wished Queen 'Excruciating' Death

Britain's longest ruling monarch visited Philadelphia in 1976 to commemorate the United States bicentennial and to visit Independence Hall. While there, she presented the country with the Bicentennial Bell, still displayed at the museum, as a gift from Britain. She also gave a speech in which she called the Revolutionary War a "lesson" for her country.

>>Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's Monarch For 70 Years, Dies

"It seems to me that Independence Day, the Fourth of July, should be celebrated as much in Britain as in America," she said at the time, in remarks published by Independence Hall. "Not in rejoicing at the separation of the American Colonies from the British Crown, but in sincere gratitude to the Founding Fathers of this great Republic for having taught Britain a very valuable lesson."

She went on to add in her Philadelphia remarks that Britain "lost the American Colonies because we lacked that statesmanship 'to know the right time, and the manner of yielding, what is impossible to keep.'"

For years, the queen's Bicentennial Bell rang from the tower on 3rd Street, between Chestnut and Walnut streets, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

XVI Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel G. P. Gutierrez will join Washington Memorial Chapel’s Rector, Father Tommy Thompson, to deliver the service. The special 1662 Book of Common Prayer service of Evensong, utilizing the official Prayer Book Of The Church Of England, will be performed.