Church of England Offers Special Prayer for Princess Diana

The Church of England recently announced plans to offer a special prayer for Britain's late Princess Diana.

It is hoped the prayer will be read by clergy all over Britain on the Sunday nearest to the tenth anniversary of Diana's death, which occurred on 31 August 1997.

A Church figure told Britain's The Daily Mail newspaper, "The idea is that the prayer will be issued by Lambeth Palace, but it will be up to individual dioceses and parishes to use it. Reconciliation will be the theme."

A Concert for Diana, for which tickets sold out within minutes, was organised by Princes William and Harry to celebrate their mother's life. It will take place at Wembley Stadium on 1 July 2007.

The Leprosy Mission, an international Christian organisation, will benefit from some of the proceeds of the concert.

From 1990 until her death in 1997, Princess Diana was Patron of The Leprosy Mission. Recognising that the stigma associated with leprosy was ill-founded, she tried to dispel the myths surrounding the disease by visiting hospitals and touching patients.

"We (Prince Harry) both wanted to put our stamp on it. We want it to represent exactly what our mother would have wanted. So therefore the church service alone isn't enough. We wanted to have this big concert full of energy, full of the sort of fun and happiness, which I know she would have wanted," Prince William said.