church
No let up in public mourning

Crowds Continue to Mourn Diana

Public acts of remembrance for Diana continued throughout Sunday, as cathedrals, churches and other places of worship across Britain staged special services.

Liverpool hosted two special services -- first at the Anglican Cathedral, then at the Roman Catholic one.

In Bradford, people of all faiths responded to a call by the Provost of the City for what he called "a spiritual link up" -- something the Princess would have wanted.

In the Shropshire home village of the Princess's bodyguard, Trevor Rhys Jones, the congregation prayed for everyone involved in the fatal crash in Paris. Mr Rhys Jones is recovering in hospital from his injuries.

Birmingham
Huge crowds turned up for this tribute in Birmingham
In London, crowds of people continued to converge on Diana's former home, Kensington Palace, queuing for hours to look at the floral tributes and to sign the books of condolence.

More than 24 hours after the funeral, the area around the Palace was packed and the neighbouring grass of Kensington Gardens was barely visible under a sea of people coming to pay their respects.

More people were drawn to the palace than on any day since Diana's death as the nation's grief went on unabated.

flowers
And still the flowers keep coming in
A queue of more than 2,000 people waited patiently to sign one of the 36 Books of Condolence moved to Kensington Palace from St James's Palace on Saturday.

In Ireland, President Mary Robinson led the congregation at a big memorial service in Dublin. It was one of her last official acts before she steps down as president at the end of the week.

Hundreds queued for several hours to be present in the cathedral and the service was relayed by loudspeaker to the overflow crowds outside. Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Archbishops led the prayers, and the chief Rabbi of Ireland was there too.

The memory of Diana also glowed brightly as thousands of people paid homage at Althorp House, the family home where she was buried on Saturday.

Scores of candles flickered gently in the breeze as "England's Rose" lay at rest on an island in a lake in the grounds of the Spencer family's Northamptonshire estate.

Palace
Mourners gaze out on the sea of flowers at Kensington Palace
All day long people flocked to the front and rear gates of the 7,000-acre grounds to place lighted candles and flowers.

Police were forced to erect crush barriers to keep the throngs away from the traffic. The main road outside Althorp House was eventually closed by police because of the size of the crowd.

For hundreds of yards along the ancient walls of the estate candles were laid lovingly amid the ocean of flowers.

At the nearby Great Brington parish church, where it was originally planned to bury Diana in the Spencer family vaults, there were similar scenes of sadness.

Streams of visitors trekked to the 13th century St Mary The Virgin church to pay their respects.

Vicar David MacPherson said he had had to ask people not to lay any more flowers in the church because it was becoming so full.

Warning against "Idolatry"

The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Turnbull, urged 3,000 people packed into Durham Cathedral not to make an idol of Diana.

"She appeared on the public scene as a fairytale princess, snatched from what was seen as the ordinary life of a kindergarten teacher .... She was frequently portrayed in the media as a fantasy figure ... Yet we know that idolatry misses the reality and devalues the precious truth about her," the bishop said.

Diana
"Idolatry devalues the truth"
He also feared there was a danger of her becoming an icon: "Attempts to make icons out of Eva Peron or Elvis Presley have resulted in some exceedingly strange cultures and practices for we cannot make objects of worship out of something known to be fallible without an element of the ridiculous.

"We know and she knew that Diana was not perfect and yet this very fallibility endeared her to us all - not because we condoned her failings.

"We sensed huge relief at the realisation that a person with so many gifts and advantages could, like us, make mistakes. Indeed her vulnerability was a sign of her authenticity."

The bishop continued: "Her own public suffering made her responsive to the suffering of others. Neither idol nor icon will do.

"We want to remember her as the vital and the suffering, the spontaneously joyful and fun-loving sparkling person that she was and also the sad person that she was."