Order of Service for the Funeral and Interment
of
His Royal Highness
Claus George Willem Frederik Geert
Prince of the Netherlands
Jonkheer van Amsberg
in the Nieuwe Kerk, Delft
on 15 October 2002
Dötzingen, 6 September 2002
Amsterdam, 6 October 2002
Officiating minister: Rev. C.A. ter Linden,
Emeritus Minister of the Kloosterkerk, The Hague
Elder on duty: L. Boersma
Tribute: Huub Oosterhuis
Music: Residentie Bach Choir and Residentie Bach Orchestra, conducted by Jos Vermunt
Organists: Liuwe Tamminga and Bas de Vrome
Organ voluntary
Introit
Welcome
We are gathered here to remember a man who was very dear to us: Claus van Amsberg, Prince of the Netherlands. A man who understood from the depths of his soul what inspired others, a man who could never close his eyes to injustice or suffering, a man for whom to believe was to act.
Our thoughts go out first of all to you, our Queen, united with him in love for so many years and who will miss his support so much; our thoughts are also with you, his sons whom he loved so dearly - Willem-Alexander, Friso and Constantijn – and with you, who were later welcomed into his family through your love for his sons, and grew so close to him in those last difficult years.
And our thoughts are with you, his sisters and your husbands, to whom he remained, always, a much-loved, loyal brother and brother-in-law. Our thoughts are also with those who have lost in Prince Claus an exceptional son-in-law.
Our thoughts are with all those in this country and throughout the world who knew him and whom he held in his heart. We remember too all who did not know Prince Claus personally, but who felt touched by his life and feel that they have lost someone dear to them.
We are gathered here to remember him now before God and to commend him to God’s care.
Call to worship
Our help is in the name of the Lord
who made heaven and earth
who keeps faith for ever and ever
and does not forsake the work of his hands.
Grace be with you and the peace
of God our Father
and Our Lord Jesus Christ
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Choir:
“Ich harre des Herrn, meine Seele harret, und ich hoffe auf sein Wort”
From Cantate BVV 131, “Aus ter Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir”
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750).
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope
Opening Prayer
O Lord,
We thank You for the life of Prince Claus, who gave love, courage and inspiration to so many. Who, through his unique gifts of heart and intellect, in his quest for truth and justice, served our country and this world so outstandingly, and who, in the final years of his life, had to endure so many ordeals.
Be with us now as we remember this man, whom we came to love so well and whose death grieves us so deeply. O God, our trust is in You. He is safe now with You, even though he is no longer with us. We commend him to Your mercy.
Comfort our hearts with Your word and Your spirit.
First Lesson
Ecclesiastes 12: 2–7 (standard translation)
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Music
Final chorale from Cantate BWV 107 “Was willst du dich betrüben”,
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750).
Second Lesson
Genesis 1: 1–4
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
John 1: 1–5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Hymn
Song to the light (words by Huub Oosterhuis, music by Antoine Oomen)
choir:
Light, gently touching in the morning,
untimely light in which we stand,
cold, each alone and without shelter,
light, cover me, your fire command.
Keep me from falling, may we never,
so sad and heavy as we are,
fall out of grace with one another,
aimless and lost for evermore.
all: Light, of my city guard and ruler,
light that prevails and shall endure.
Dear caring light and steadfast shoulder,
bear me, your watching child secure.
Light, child in me, see through my eyes if
somewhere, somehow, the world may dawn
where people bear their names with honour,
where justice reigns and peace is born.
all: All things shall crumble and be scattered,
all things not measured by the light.
Our words will sow and reap destruction,
our deeds will vanish in the night.
Full singing voice of light, resounding,
in ev'ry beating heart is heard.
Dearest of people, you the first born,
light, you the Living One's last word.
Tribute
This born stranger
raised
on enemy soil
flanked by sparkling sons,
nephews, chosen beauties
he shows his wounds speaks
without words
poet without national language
This white black white man
elder brother to millions
this born king.
The light turns black as pitch – and the clouds hang heavy – and alas the olives taste no more. That is what happened to him.
He said something of the sort in front of the television cameras – which he disliked – when he turned sixty, in 1986. He described depression as “the most dreadful thing that can happen to a person”. You could see it in him, and that he knew well, but he was unable to hide it, he said. Nor did he wish to. He quoted the German proverb, “lies have short legs”.
Rather tell the truth out of respect for those who share your sorrow, and in solidarity with others suffering from the same affliction. He knew well that he was one of many.
On 15 May 1991, he addressed the World Conference of the Society for International Development, saying: “There can be no future for mankind worth living that is not built on true international solidarity”. "Solidarity", he repeated; it then seemed that the word had vanished from the Dutch language as if no one remembered what it meant. But he remembered.
The liturgy of this funeral service consists almost entirely of extracts from the Bible, fragments of that beautiful, difficult, Judaic book, the source of every variant of Christianity, the yardstick against which all should be measured. For that is the church tradition: to read and sing from the Bible. So too on this occasion.
Claus was not a great churchgoer. The word “God” rarely passed his lips. He was a man not given to dogmatic assertions. He had more questions than answers, as do many Christians who are not closely associated with the Church. He did not speak of any religious experiences he may have had. And all his life he had mixed feelings about the Lutheran Church of his youth. Only in adulthood did he encounter the then so called Jewish Old Testament. Officially, it did not exist in the German Third Reich between 1933 and 1945. The churches – and not only those in Germany – suppressed the fact that Jesus himself was a Jew. Later in life, Claus sought out the book he had been denied, and discovered and recognised the grandeur of its message.
“In the beginning was the Word”, we heard. What word was in the beginning? According to the Jewish interpretation of the Bible, in the beginning the Torah was with God, even before he created heaven and earth. The meaning of Torah is “the word that gives guidance”, enabling us to lead a life worth living.
“In the beginning was the Word” is not a philosophical statement, but a prophetic voice that enjoins us to respect one another, to treat one another with dignity, in short, to love our neighbour. Love, not as a glowing sentiment, but as practical solidarity – not abandoning another human being, not allowing him to suffer hunger or torture, to disappear. Love the stranger , that is the essence of the word. The stranger is your equal, do not push him aside, do not chase her away, the stranger has the same rights as you have. “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34). So it is written. The stranger is your equal, a person like you. When the Bible talks of a stranger it equates him with your neighbour.
Without the Torah there can be no future for mankind worth living. “Light” is the symbol of that future, of a world in which people can live in dignity. In the beginning, God said “Let there be light”.
We sometimes use the name of God too easily in our church services. But whom precisely do we mean? We could agree that we mean the One and Only, who in both the Old and the New Testament is the champion of the refugee, the exile, the wronged. The One who prefers to see solidarity and justice rather than hear adoration and songs of praise. For so it is written in Amos 5:21-24, in the book that all forms of Christianity should recognise as their source and measure.
Claus understood perfectly well why the voice of this book was stifled in the years of his youth. And he thought it a miracle that it still exists, that book, that vision of righteousness and justice. He spent his life trying, with infinite resourcefulness, to put these great words into practice.
He suffered the most dreadful thing that can happen, he said in 1986: darkened was the sun. And he suffered the same fate later, when both his health and his power of speech deteriorated. Yet even in his darkest months his spirit rose above bitterness and cynicism; and never did he inspire pity. There was something else, it seemed, something stronger than the pain. And that was his attachment to life and the bond of unconditional devotion with his wife and children. We watched the events of the Queen’s Birthday this year on television in his hospital room. The Royal Family were visiting Hoogeveen and Meppel. The volume was low. “Look – there they are,” he said, “they’re doing it well. And that’s where I would stand,” he pointed, “that was my place, by her side.” He was beaming.
“When I was young,” he said, "I wasn’t sure where I belonged – in Germany, in Africa, and then the Netherlands in addition to that. But now I belong with them.”
The God who commands and entreats us to be charitable to one another is Himself described in the Bible as the fount of all mercy, as faithfulness and compassion incarnate.
This is the same God in the hymn chosen for today’s funeral. We are singing it in German, though there is a Dutch version to the same melody, as a tribute to one who, as a German, was able to heal the wounds that the war inflicted on our nation.
“O take my hand dear Father and lead Thou me,
Till at my journey’s ending I dwell with Thee.”
Claus hoped that this is what would await him hereafter.
Amen.
Hymn
O Take my hand dear Father (Text: Julie Hausmann 1862, Music: Friedrich Silcher 1842)
choir:
O take my hand dear Father and lead Thou me,
Till at my journey's ending I dwell with Thee.
Alone I cannot wander one single day,
So do Thou guide my footsteps on life's rough way.
all: O cover with Thy mercy my poor, weak heart,
Lest I in joy or sorrow from Thee depart.
Permit Thy child to linger here at Thy feet,
Thy goodness blindly trusting with faith complete.
all: Though oft Thy power but faintly may stir my soul,
With Thee, my Light in darkness, I reach the goal.
Take then my hand, dear Father, and lead Thou me,
Till at my journey's ending I dwell with Thee.
Introduction to the interment
Now that Claus George Willem Otto Frederik Geert van Amsberg has departed this life, we lay his body to rest in this church. We give him from our hands into the keeping of the living God, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. Whether we live or die, we live or die to the Lord, we belong to Him.”
Interment in the Royal Vault
Agnus Dei and Lux aeterna from Requiem KV 626
version Franz Xaver Süssmayr Choir and Orchestra
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1796–1791)
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi:
Dona eis requiem.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi:
Dona eis requiem.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi:
Dona eis requiem sempiternam.
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
cum sanctis tuis in aeternum,
quia pius es.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
cum sanctis tuis in aeternum,
quia pius es.
Organ voluntary
Toccata,
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 – 1643)
Prayers, followed by silent prayer.
Now that we have committed the body of Prince Claus to the bosom of this church, we come before You, commending him to You, the Everlasting God, in a church where generation upon generation has borne witness that humanity is safe in Your keeping, that You have a plan for its future.
We thank you for the exceptional man who came into the life of our Queen, and so into the lives of us all, to whom we grew close because of who he was and because of his willingness to give himself to a people that became his own. Because he used his many gifts to serve the people of our country, and gained so much respect through his commitment to justice and humanity.
We remember too the courage with which he took the blows that gradually sapped his strength and vitality, with all that that demanded of him – and not of him alone.
We commend to You our Queen, to whom he gave so much support in her life and her work and who will miss him so much, and we pray you to grant her the strength to continue to discharge the unique responsibility entrusted to her.
We pray for their sons, for Willem-Alexander, Friso and Constantijn, and for Máxima and Laurentien too, who experienced so much joy with him and so much sorrow for him, their father and their father-in-law.
And lastly we pray that amidst the pain of our loss, we may never lose the inspiring memory of the savoir-vivre, social commitment and conscience of this man who became so dear to us all.
We pray that his life may be given a place in the history that You and humanity are writing together, on the way to Your Kingdom, a world where people and nations will finally understand one another, and where Your peace and justice will be all in all.
Choir a capella
From the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, opus 31: Tebye Poyem (no. 12)
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
We praise Thee
We bless and praise Thy name
Humbly, we thank Thee.
Lord our God, hear us,
Hear our prayer.
We praise thee
Hear our prayer, O Lord our God.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name;
Thy Kingdom come;
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom,
the Power and the Glory
for ever and ever,
Amen.
Hymn
À Toi la Gloire
(All rise)
À toi la gloire, O Ressuscité!
À toi la victoire pour l'éternité!
Brillant de lumière, l'ange est descendu,
Il roule la pierre du tombeau vaincu.
À toi la gloire, O Ressuscité!
À toi la victoire pour l'éternité!
Vois-le paraître: C'est lui, c'est Jésus,
Ton Sauveur, ton Maître, Oh! ne doute plus!
Sois dans l'allégresse, peuple du Seigneur,
Et redis sans cesse: Le Christ est vainqueur!
À toi la gloire, O Ressuscité!
À toi la victoire pour l'éternité!
Craindrais-je encore? Il vit à jamais,
Celui que j'adore, le Prince de paix;
Il est ma victoire, mon puissant soutien,
Ma vie et ma gloire : non, je ne crains rien!
À toi la gloire, O Ressuscité!
À toi la victoire pour l'éternité!
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the vict'ry, Thou o'er death hast won;
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded graveclothes where Thy body lay.
(Refrain)
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
Endless is the vict'ry, thou o'er death hast won!
Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
Let the Church with gladness hymns of triumph sing;
For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting!
(Refrain)
No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life;
Life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife;
Make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love:
Bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.
(Refrain)
Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto You.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Amen.
Choir
Dona nobis pacem from the Mass in B Minor
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Give us peace
Organ voluntary