THE QUEEN has decided that the Duchess of Cornwall should not be named in state prayers said for the royal family in Anglican churches.

Buckingham Palace announced the decision yesterday after a series of parliamentary questions from Andrew Mackinlay, the Labour MP for Thurrock.

A palace spokesman said: “There are no plans to issue a warrant to amend the state prayers to include the Duchess of Cornwall.”

The state prayers are said on Sundays at Church of England services up and down the country. Vicars first read a prayer for the Queen and a second one which reads: “Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness, we humbly beseech thee to bless Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Charles, Prince of Wales, and all the royal family.”

Robert Lacey, the royal biographer, said the decision not to add Camilla’s name would have been taken personally by the Queen as supreme governor of the Church of England. He added that the decision was more likely to be out of respect for the sensitivities of churchgoers than any personal slight to the duchess.

“The timing of the Buckingham Palace statement, ahead of the prime minister’s answer, makes it very clear that she [the Queen] is asserting that this is an area belonging to her own prerogative. The government does not have the final word in this matter,” said Lacey.

“The speed and decisiveness has more to do with the Queen and her relationship to the church rather than her relationship to Camilla. The Queen is sensitive to the misgivings of churchgoers and she is respecting their reticence over the remarriage.”

Before the couple’s wedding, it had been widely forecast that Camilla’s name would be included in the prayers. The decision to exclude her will be interpreted by some as a sign that she has still not been accepted unconditionally into royal circles.

Diana, Princess of Wales, by contrast, was named specifically in state prayers from the time of her wedding in 1981 until her divorce from the prince in 1996.

In similar vein, some senior church figures and supporters of Charles and Camilla have reacted with concern.

David Stancliffe, the Bishop of Salisbury, said: “I am surprised by this decision. I can’t believe this decision came from the archbishops.”

Christopher Mulholland, the vicar of Badminton, near to Highgrove, Charles’s country home in Gloucestershire, called the decision “an astonishing and ludicrous omission”, adding that he and his congregation would still pray for the couple.

Many other churches are also expected to continue including Camilla in royal prayers, a friend of the prince said.

Earlier this year Buckingham Palace said there would be a consultation with the Church of England before any royal warrant was issued.

It is understood the discussions included wide consultation with ministers and constitutional experts, but the Queen makes the final decision.

Last Thursday Mackinlay asked the prime minister in a written Commons question what discussions ministers had held with the royal household, the Archbishop of Canterbury and officials at Clarence House on changing the state prayers.

In a second question he asked Tony Blair if a royal warrant would be issued adding an additional name to the state prayers.

The current state prayers date from 1662 and decisions over who to include or exclude can be highly sensitive.

The removal of Diana’s name from prayers was described by her circle as “spiteful and humiliating”. She reportedly took the decision as a sign that she was being “thrust to the margins of royal life”. “Little wonder,” one friend said at the time, “that she saw her main role as an ambassador [abroad].”

Sources close to Lord Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the divorce, blamed palace officials for the move and it is thought this was a decision taken principally by the palace.

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