The memorial stone for C.S. Lewis, laying in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey

A memorial service for C.S. Lewis on the 50^th anniversary of his death was held over the weekend in Westminster Abbey, with a stone placed in Poets’ Corner alongside memorials for literary figures like Chaucer and Dickens.

Over 1,000 guests attended the service, presided over by Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall.

“50 years after the death of C.S. Lewis, we assemble to give thanks for his life and work… Here are buried or memorialised over 3,000 men and women of our country and the Commonwealth and of the English-speaking world. Today the name of C.S. Lewis will join that distinguished roll when we dedicate a permanent memorial to him near the graves and memorials of poets and other writers…” said Dr Hall during the service.

On the memorial stone were inscribed the words of Lewis from an address entitled Is Theology Poetry? that Lewis gave to the Socratic Club, a forum for debate between Christians and non-Christians, and of which Lewis was the President: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.”

Dr Michael Ward, from Blackfriars Hall in Oxford and C.S. Lewis scholar said the quote had been selected as it “links together many areas of [Lewis’] life and work.”

“The sentence is straightforwardly confessional, marking the centrality of his faith a personal level,” Dr Ward writes in the Westminster memorial service leaflet.

“The Sun is there, aptly enough, for ‘the heavens are telling the glory of God’, in the words of the Psalm that Lewis regarded as the psalter’s greatest lyric. ‘Everything else’ is there too, because his vision was all-embracing. Angels, poached eggs, mice and their tails, Golders Green, birdsong, buses, Balder, the great nebula in Andromeda: all are there and all may be redeemed for us in Christ—as long as the Cross comes before the Crown.”

Prayers for C.S. Lewis were given during the service including:

The Reverend Philip Hobday, Chaplain, Magdalene College, Cambridge:

LET us praise God for his revelation of truth and transcendent beauty to C.S. Lewis: for Lewis’s longing for God, and his perception of divine reality, and for his deep appreciation of the strength and freshness of God’s love in ordinary situations.

The Reverend Professor Vernon White, Canon Theologian:

LET us praise God for Lewis’s Christian vocation to inspire and to teach: for his love of debate and discussion, for his commitment to reason and the discovery of the truth, and for his passion to commend the credibility and reality of God.

Professor Simon Horobin, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford, and Tutorial Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford:

LET us praise God for Lewis’s academic life: for his contribution to scholarly research, for his commitment to the imaginative and literary worlds which shaped his own writing and communication, and for his respect for the power of great literature to open new horizons.

The Reverend Adrian Dorrian, Rector, St Mark’s, Dundela:

LET us praise God for Lewis’s vision and creativity: for his imagination and ability to communicate lucidly to children and adults alike, for his care as a correspondent, for his skill as an author, poet and broadcaster, for his understanding of the human condition, and his joy in the glorious vitality of creation.

The Reverend Tim Stead, Vicar, Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry:

LET us pray for all those who take inspiration from Lewis’s life and work: for teachers and apologists, catechists and mystics, playwrights, film-makers, novelists, and poets, and for those seeking after God, or pondering the mysteries of existence.