The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s 60 years of marriage was praised today by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a faithful and creative partnership lived in the "full light of publicity".

Dr Rowan Williams said that the Royal couple’s milestone was a symbol of the relationship between the people and monarch, and was part of her "unqualified commitment" to every aspect of her reign.

The royal couple, whose actual anniversary falls tomorrow, were surrounded by their family, senior politicians past and present, and a 2,000-strong congregation as they listened to the sermon in Westminster Abbey.

It was in the same splendid setting that Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten wed on Thursday November 20, 1947.

The young bride and groom’s ceremony provided the nation with a much need splash of colour in the tough post-war days. It served as a morale boost in the wake of Britain’s conflict with Germany, and the widespread rationing the nation still faced.

The lasting union has seen the monarch become the first British sovereign to celebrate a diamond wedding.

The Archbishop told the congregation today: "Every marriage is a public event, but some couples have to live more than others in the full light of publicity.

"We are probably more aware than ever these days of the pressures this brings. But it also means that we can give special thanks for the very public character of the witness and the sign offered to us by this marriage, and what it has meant to nation and Commonwealth over the decades.

"And part of what it has meant has had to do precisely with the sense of unqualified commitment that has been so characteristic of every aspect of this reign: the faithful and creative personal partnership at the centre of everything else has been a sign of creative faithfulness to a task, a vocation, the creative faithfulness that secures the trust, love and prayerful support of millions."

On her wedding day the Queen wore an ivory silk Norman Hartnell gown, decorated with 10,000 seed pearls, glittering crystals and an intricate 13ft star-patterned train.

Dr Williams also told the congregation: "Today we celebrate not only a marriage but the relationship between monarch and people of which also that marriage is a symbol: a relationship in which we see what levels of commitment are possible for someone upheld by a clear sense of God’s calling and enabling, and the corresponding vision of the worthwhileness of this national and international family that is the Commonwealth, which has been the recipient of such unswerving service.

"So before we complain too loudly about a world of disposable relationships and short-term policies, a world of fracturing and insecure international bonds and the decline of trust, we should remember today that we have cause for thanksgiving - thanksgiving that God has made human beings capable, against all the odds, of reflecting his own completely costly and self-giving commitment to his world; that the gift of marriage makes this capacity visible in our world; and that, in the lives of the couple with whom today we join in celebration, that bracing, renewing and hopeful vision of faithful generosity has been for 60 years set so clearly before our eyes.

"May it be so for many more years."

The Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Princes William and Harry attended the service, as well as Gordon Brown, former prime ministers Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Major, religious representatives, military chiefs of staff and some of the Queen’s godchildren.

Prince William gave one of the readings, while Dame Judi Dench read a specially-commissioned poem by the poet laureate Andrew Motion.

Prince Charles last night hosted a party for his parents at Clarence House, where more than 20 close members of the Royal Family toasted the Queen and Prince Philip’s anniversary at a black tie dinner.

The Queen is the first British monarch to celebrate a diamond wedding.

About 500 past and present members of Royal Household staff were also among the guests at the Abbey, as were representatives from the former Royal Yacht Britannia, the Royal Train and the Royal Squadron.

Five choristers who sang at the 1947 wedding service as schoolboys carried candles in the procession, while others watched from the pews.

There were also around 20 members of the public from across the country who married on the same day as the Queen and the Duke. One of the diamond wedding couples, Barbara and Norman Moon, both 78, from Calverton, Nottingham, said they were delighted to be asked to attend. "It’s a once in a lifetime," Mrs Moon said.

Two damask rose silk-covered kneelers, used by the bride and groom during the 1947 service, were on display. When they were recently restored and re-upholstered it was discovered that they had been made from simple wooden orange boxes because of war-time austerity.

Tomorrow - the actual day of their diamond wedding anniversary - they fly to Malta, the Mediterranean island where they spent some of their happiest days when Prince Philip was on naval service in the early part of their marriage.

It offered them their only real taste of life as a relatively ordinary couple. The brief poignant, private stay in Malta was the Duke’s idea. They will stop off there on their way to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Uganda.

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