Our Faithful Queen
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our faithful<br />
<strong>Queen</strong><br />
70 Years of faith & serviCe<br />
Catherine ButCher
2
our faithful<br />
<strong>Queen</strong><br />
70 Years of faith & serviCe<br />
introDuCtion 2<br />
1. a Personal JourneY 7<br />
2. PuBliC ProMises 15<br />
3. What has Most value? 23<br />
4. the hiDDen CereMonY 31<br />
5. a CroWn of thorns 39<br />
6. a sourCe of strenGth 47<br />
7. the PeaCe of GoD 55<br />
3
2
introDuCtion<br />
On 6 February 1952,<br />
<strong>Our</strong> <strong>Faithful</strong> <strong>Queen</strong>, includes some<br />
Elizabeth Alexandra<br />
of the prayers, Bible readings and<br />
Mary Windsor became<br />
devotional thoughts that were<br />
<strong>Queen</strong>. Arrangements began almost<br />
included in that slim, black, leatherbound<br />
volume. Some of the language<br />
immediately for her Coronation.<br />
There were new coins to be minted;<br />
of the Devotions has been made more<br />
new stamps to print; and new<br />
accessible to modern readers, but the<br />
Coronation robes to be made.<br />
meaning is the same.<br />
The young <strong>Queen</strong> also needed to prepare spiritually<br />
and emotionally. Her spiritual preparation was<br />
overseen by the then Archbishop of Canterbury,<br />
Geoffrey Fisher. To help her prepare for her new role,<br />
he wrote A Little Book of Private Devotions – short,<br />
daily meditations with Bible readings and prayers,<br />
which he gave to the <strong>Queen</strong> to use from 1 May 1953 to<br />
the day of her Coronation. These 33 days of Devotions<br />
give us an insight into the personal preparations the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> made for her role as Sovereign.<br />
Fewer than a dozen copies of the Little Book<br />
of Private Devotions were printed. This new book,<br />
Coronation<br />
The focus of the Devotions is the deep symbolism<br />
of the Coronation ceremony, rooted in the Bible<br />
– the best-selling book of all time. The Archbishop<br />
highlighted the different stages in the ceremony: the<br />
approach and procession into Westminster Abbey;<br />
the oaths; the giving of the Bible; the Communion<br />
service; the anointing; the blessing and clothing with<br />
the royal robes; the presentation of the symbols of<br />
royalty including the orb, sceptre and crown, then<br />
the blessing of the Duke of Edinburgh and prayers<br />
for the Church.<br />
3
At the heart of the Coronation,<br />
there was a hidden ceremony,<br />
screened from view under a<br />
canopy so the television cameras<br />
could not film it. At this most<br />
sacred moment, the <strong>Queen</strong> was<br />
anointed with oil.<br />
Anointing symbolically sets<br />
people apart for service and pours out the life and<br />
power of God. As the Devotions explain, ‘a new<br />
relationship is established between God and his<br />
servants’. God’s anointing makes the difference<br />
between an ordinary human life and a life empowered<br />
by God’s Holy Spirit.<br />
PraYers<br />
Seventy years after her<br />
Coronation, this new book aims<br />
to show that, through her<br />
anointing and in answer to the<br />
prayers of her people, God<br />
equipped the <strong>Queen</strong> for her<br />
extraordinary role.<br />
The words of the National<br />
Anthem, ‘God save our gracious<br />
<strong>Queen</strong>; long live our noble<br />
<strong>Queen</strong>…’ are a prayer many of<br />
us have sung, perhaps without<br />
even realising it is a prayer.<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth II is now one<br />
of the world’s longest serving<br />
monarchs. In the year she became <strong>Queen</strong> she asked<br />
people around the Commonwealth to pray for her<br />
‘that I may faithfully serve him [God] and you,<br />
all the days of my life’.<br />
These are prayers God has answered.<br />
Just as God has equipped the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> for her role as Sovereign<br />
over the past 70 years and<br />
answered her prayers, Christians<br />
believe that God wants to equip<br />
each of us for our roles in life and<br />
invites us to talk to him in prayer<br />
so he can answer our prayers too.<br />
Top: leaving Westminster Abbey after the<br />
Coronation, 1953.<br />
Bottom: receiving the Spurs of Chivalry from the<br />
Lord Great Chamberlain during the Coronation.<br />
Right: at the State Opening of Parliament, 2006.<br />
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6<br />
The Duke and Duchess of York with Princess Elizabeth, 1928.
70<br />
1<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
a Personal JourneY of<br />
faith<br />
E<br />
lizabeth II was not born to be <strong>Queen</strong>.<br />
Her father, the Duke of York, was the<br />
second son of King George V, so the young<br />
Elizabeth had little expectation of<br />
becoming the Sovereign.<br />
She began 1936 as a 9-year-old who loved horses and<br />
dogs, and was being prepared for life as a country<br />
gentlewoman. But by the end of the year she was<br />
next in line to the throne. Her uncle, Edward VIII,<br />
had abdicated and immediately her father had<br />
become King George VI.<br />
Even then, she might have expected to be middleaged<br />
before becoming <strong>Queen</strong>, but her father was just<br />
56 when he died. By her 27th birthday, the stage was<br />
set for this young wife and mother of two to be<br />
crowned. Her formal titles were ‘Elizabeth the<br />
Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom<br />
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her<br />
other Realms and Territories <strong>Queen</strong>, Head of the<br />
Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith’.<br />
Grace is the unearned favour of God. She did not<br />
take the ‘Grace of God’ for granted.<br />
7
Top left: Princess Elizabeth at<br />
a Coronation Concert, 1937.<br />
CalleD BY GoD<br />
The first words Archbishop Fisher<br />
gave the <strong>Queen</strong> to consider in the<br />
Devotions were a prayer from the<br />
Bible: ‘Show me your ways, Lord,<br />
teach me your paths. Guide me in<br />
your truth and teach me, for you<br />
are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day<br />
long...’. Then he added these words for her to say<br />
as she prepared herself for her Coronation:<br />
The whole of life is a journey to God. In its course<br />
are many lesser journeys taken for many different<br />
purposes. Sometimes the Bible records special<br />
journeys undertaken for<br />
special purposes in answer<br />
to a call from God…<br />
Such will be my journey<br />
to Westminster. It will be<br />
undertaken in obedience<br />
to a call from God.<br />
I have not chosen this office for<br />
myself: he has appointed me to it,<br />
and I go to be consecrated to it by<br />
him. My prayer must echo that of<br />
the Virgin Mary, and that of our<br />
Lord himself: ‘Be it unto me<br />
according to thy will’; ‘Not what<br />
I will, but what thou wilt’. And because he leads,<br />
I may follow in complete trust.<br />
By accepting her role, the <strong>Queen</strong> sacrificed her<br />
personal preferences and private life to adopt a life<br />
of duty and service in obedience to God’s call,<br />
trusting him to lead her.<br />
I have not chosen<br />
this office for myself;<br />
he has appointed me<br />
to it… because he<br />
leads, I may follow<br />
in complete trust<br />
8<br />
Bottom left: Princess Elizabeth at the Royal<br />
Naval College in Dartmouth in 1939,<br />
where her future husband was training.<br />
Right: with the Archbishop of Canterbury<br />
Geoffrey Fisher, 1947.
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DeDiCateD to serve<br />
She knew it was not a role she could undertake alone.<br />
On her 21st birthday, Princess Elizabeth asked for her<br />
people’s support and God’s help:<br />
I declare before you all that my whole life whether<br />
it be long or short shall be devoted to your service<br />
and the service of our great imperial family to<br />
which we all belong. But I shall not have strength<br />
to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in<br />
it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that<br />
your support will be unfailingly given. God help me<br />
to make good my vow, and God bless all of you<br />
who are willing to share in it.<br />
In her first Christmas broadcast as <strong>Queen</strong> in 1952,<br />
she re-emphasised her dedication:<br />
At my Coronation next June, I shall dedicate<br />
myself anew to your service. I shall do so in the<br />
presence of a great congregation, drawn from<br />
every part of the Commonwealth and Empire,<br />
while millions outside Westminster Abbey will<br />
hear the promises and the prayers being offered<br />
up within its walls, and see much of the ancient<br />
ceremony in which kings and queens before me<br />
have taken part through century upon century.<br />
And she asked for prayer:<br />
Pray that God may give me wisdom and strength<br />
to carry out the solemn promises I shall be<br />
making, and that I may faithfully serve him<br />
and you, all the days of my life.<br />
It is a prayer God has answered.<br />
Top right: on her 21st birthday.<br />
Bottom right: with her father King George VI.<br />
Left: the <strong>Queen</strong>’s first Christmas day broadcast, December 1952.<br />
11
trustinG<br />
PraYers<br />
By 1 May 1953, as the countdown<br />
to her Coronation began, the<br />
prayer she was invited to pray<br />
using the thees and thous<br />
language of the day, was based on<br />
the words of Jesus. He said: ‘I am<br />
the way and the truth and the life’<br />
– words which give all Christians,<br />
including queens and kings,<br />
confidence that they do not need<br />
to take the journey through life alone. The prayer<br />
could be translated into contemporary language as:<br />
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the way, the truth and<br />
the life: Keep me from wandering from your ways.<br />
Help me to trust you, the truth, and to be filled<br />
with your life. May your Holy Spirit teach me to<br />
live the right way, to be truthful, and to be filled<br />
with your life, living to please<br />
you. Amen.<br />
Looking ahead to the moment<br />
when she would kneel in private<br />
prayer in front of Westminster<br />
Abbey’s altar as the ceremony<br />
began, the Devotions invited her<br />
Publicly and privately<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> put her<br />
trust in God and<br />
drew strength<br />
from him<br />
to use: ‘the simplest words of<br />
trust in God and of trusting<br />
oneself to God’ – again words<br />
from the Bible:<br />
‘In quietness and trust<br />
is your strength…’<br />
written by the 8th-century BC Israelite<br />
prophet Isaiah – Isaiah chapter 30 verse 15<br />
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.<br />
You believe in God; believe also in me.’<br />
Jesus’ words recorded by John, in his eye-witness account<br />
of Jesus' life, John's Gospel chapter 14 verse 1<br />
Although life’s journey had taken an unexpected<br />
turn, publicly and privately the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> put her trust in God<br />
and drew strength from him<br />
for the task ahead.<br />
12<br />
Top left: Princess Elizabeth in her Auxiliary<br />
Territorial Service (ATS) uniform, 1945.<br />
Bottom left: with Princess Anne, the Welsh pony,<br />
Greensleeves, and the corgis, Whisky and Sugar.<br />
Right: with the Duke of Edinburgh and their<br />
children Charles and Anne, 1951.
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70<br />
2<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
PuBliC<br />
ProMises<br />
ueen Elizabeth II was crowned<br />
on 2 June 1953 in Westminster<br />
Abbey, the setting for every Coronation<br />
since 1066, using words which descend<br />
directly from those used at the<br />
Coronation of King Edgar in 973.<br />
In preparation, the Devotions highlighted Psalm 122;<br />
words from the Bible, written by the Hebrew King<br />
David, which were sung as she walked into the Abbey.<br />
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into<br />
the house of the Lord…<br />
As the <strong>Queen</strong>’s Devotions observed:<br />
This building through which I proceed…is above all<br />
the House of God…It is that I may serve the unity<br />
and peace of my peoples, that I come now into<br />
God’s house and into his presence.<br />
There were 8,251 guests waiting to welcome her into<br />
the Abbey, representing 129 nations and territories.<br />
A further 27 million people in the UK watched the<br />
ceremony on television and 11 million listened on the<br />
radio. But the most spiritual and significant parts<br />
of the three-hour service were not televised.<br />
No one could see into the heart of the young woman<br />
who knelt to pray as she dedicated herself to a life<br />
of service and duty.<br />
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unitY<br />
& PeaCe<br />
Using the Devotions<br />
for her prayers of<br />
preparation, the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
thanked God for:<br />
‘…the rich treasures of unity and peace which thou<br />
hast given to this country and Commonwealth’.<br />
And she prayed:<br />
Lord Jesus, let the love of all who will be present<br />
in the Abbey to witness my Coronation and of<br />
all who will hear the service or see it from afar<br />
surround me and uphold me, that they and<br />
I together may dedicate ourselves, our souls<br />
and bodies, to that true and reasonable service<br />
which shall be acceptable unto thee. Amen.<br />
Solemn promises were a key part of the Coronation;<br />
the first showed the restrictions of her role and her<br />
respect for the people of<br />
the Commonwealth:<br />
LORD JESUS, LET THE LOVE<br />
OF ALL WHO WILL BE<br />
PRESENT IN THE ABBEY…<br />
UPHOLD ME<br />
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It must be my<br />
constant prayer that<br />
true brotherhood<br />
and partnership may<br />
…I promise to govern<br />
be achieved<br />
the peoples in all Realms<br />
throughout the<br />
and Territories of the<br />
Commonwealth<br />
Commonwealth<br />
according to their<br />
respective laws and customs. Their will must prevail<br />
and I must accept it: for the Crown is the final<br />
constitutional power and must ratify their will.<br />
And in her Devotions she added:<br />
…it must be my constant prayer that true<br />
brotherhood and partnership may be achieved<br />
throughout the Commonwealth between<br />
peoples of many different races and cultures<br />
and religious faiths.<br />
That ‘constant prayer’ has been answered in many<br />
ways as the Commonwealth has developed as a<br />
friendly, voluntary association of 54 independent and<br />
equal countries, almost<br />
all of which were<br />
formerly under British<br />
rule, and which include<br />
about one-third of the<br />
world’s population.<br />
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JustiCe & MerCY<br />
The Coronation Oath also required<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> to promise to ‘cause<br />
Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be<br />
executed in all your judgements’.<br />
As a teenager Princess Elizabeth learned early lessons<br />
about justice and mercy.<br />
When she was just 15, her father the King made her<br />
Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. Her governess<br />
Marion Crawford later wrote: ‘Lilibet [the <strong>Queen</strong>’s<br />
nickname] took to her duties with immense<br />
seriousness and zeal…Like all young people, in her<br />
enthusiasm she almost overdid it. After one<br />
inspection, at which Lilibet had made some rather<br />
pointed criticisms in her ringing voice, one of the<br />
majors said to me, laughing: “Crawfie, you should<br />
tell the Princess quietly that the<br />
first requisite of a really good<br />
officer is to be able to temper<br />
justice with mercy.”’<br />
As she prepared to promise to<br />
‘execute justice with mercy’ as<br />
<strong>Queen</strong>, she was invited in her<br />
Devotions to reflect on God’s<br />
character:<br />
Both Justice and Mercy reveal spiritual strength<br />
and are parts of God’s character: he is all-holy…<br />
and he is all-loving and merciful too. But for us it<br />
is terribly hard to hold together justice and mercy.<br />
To learn painfully to do so by the mind of Christ in<br />
small daily judgements and opinions is one of the<br />
most important things a Christian has to do…<br />
And so she prayed:<br />
Lord, give us grace never to betray thy truth<br />
and never to deny thy love, but by thy guidance in<br />
every dealing with our neighbours<br />
to speak and do the truth in love<br />
to the restraint of evil and the<br />
reconciling of men to thee, through<br />
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<br />
Top: inspecting the Girls’ Training Corps, 1945.<br />
Bottom: with the King, at her first Trooping<br />
of the Colour.<br />
Right: at Sandhurst inspecting the troops,<br />
including Prince William, 2006.<br />
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forGiveness & love<br />
Throughout her 70 years on the throne, this prayer<br />
for grace, truth and love in her dealings with people<br />
has been put to the test many times.<br />
In her 2011 Christmas broadcast she said:<br />
Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith.<br />
It can heal broken families, it can restore<br />
friendships and it can reconcile divided<br />
communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel<br />
the power of God’s love.<br />
A few months later, in an extraordinary gesture,<br />
she put grace and forgiveness into practice when<br />
she visited Northern Ireland and shook hands with<br />
Martin McGuinness, who had been a commander of<br />
the Provisional Irish Republican Army until 1975, just<br />
four years before the <strong>Queen</strong>’s second cousin Lord<br />
Louis Mountbatten was blown up by an IRA bomb.<br />
At Christmas in 2014, she explained what inspired<br />
her to forgive:<br />
Top: at a Golden Jubilee picnic in London, 2002.<br />
Bottom: dancing with Ghana's president Kwame<br />
Nkrumah, 1961.<br />
For me, the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace,<br />
whose birth we celebrate today, is an inspiration<br />
and an anchor in my life. A role-model of<br />
reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out<br />
his hands in love, acceptance and healing. Christ’s<br />
example has taught me to seek to respect and<br />
value all people of whatever faith or none.<br />
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FOR ME, THE LIFE OF<br />
JESUS CHRIST…IS AN<br />
INSPIRATION AND AN<br />
ANCHOR IN MY LIFE<br />
During her 70<br />
years of keeping very public promises, the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
has put duty before personal preference, showing<br />
remarkable restraint and self-sacrifice, which<br />
suggests that in private she has sought to make<br />
those ‘small daily judgements’ mentioned in her<br />
Devotions, which reflect the justice and mercy<br />
of God.<br />
Her example is Jesus Christ, the founder of<br />
Christianity, as she said in 2016:<br />
Jesus Christ lived obscurely for most of his life,<br />
and never travelled far. He was maligned and<br />
rejected by many, though he had done no<br />
wrong. And yet, billions of people now follow<br />
his teaching and find in him the guiding light<br />
for their lives. I am one of them because Christ's<br />
example helps me see the value of doing small<br />
things with great love, whoever does them and<br />
whatever they themselves believe.<br />
Top: visiting Sierra Leone, 1961.<br />
Bottom: shaking hands with Northern Ireland’s deputy first<br />
minister Martin McGuinness in Belfast, 2012.<br />
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70<br />
3<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
value?<br />
What has Most<br />
A<br />
t her Coronation the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> also promised to<br />
‘maintain the Church of<br />
England’, the ‘Laws of God’<br />
and the ‘true profession<br />
of the Gospel’.<br />
During the ceremony the <strong>Queen</strong> was<br />
presented with many symbols of<br />
monarchy, most encrusted with jewels,<br />
including one of the world’s most<br />
valuable diamonds. But the first item<br />
presented was a Bible, described as<br />
‘the most valuable thing this world<br />
affords’ because ‘it reveals God to<br />
the world’ as Archbishop Fisher said.<br />
He added the Christian belief that the<br />
Bible is:<br />
…‘the Word of God’ because<br />
it is the record, made by inspired<br />
men, of the Word which has<br />
been spoken by God to man first<br />
through his people Israel, then<br />
through Jesus Christ the Son<br />
of God, ‘the Word made flesh’,<br />
and up to this day through the<br />
Holy Spirit in the Church.<br />
23<br />
Top: hand tooling the cover of the Coronation Bible.<br />
Bottom: an open Bible at the Coronation Bible Exhibition, 1953.<br />
Left: at Sandringham after making her Christmas Day broadcast<br />
to the nation; the annual message was first shown on television<br />
in 1957.
Top: Princess Elizabeth with her mother,<br />
then the Duchess of York, 1932.<br />
Bottom: with her mother and sister<br />
Princess Margaret, 1936.<br />
DailY haBits<br />
A love of the Bible goes back for<br />
generations in the royal family.<br />
The <strong>Queen</strong>’s maternal<br />
grandmother, Lady Strathearn,<br />
spent an hour a day reading the<br />
Bible with her children, including<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> Mother. In turn, the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> Mother subscribed to<br />
daily devotional Bible reading notes. She regularly<br />
read Bible stories to the young princesses Elizabeth<br />
and Margaret and taught them to pray. Both girls<br />
started their weekly school lessons with half an<br />
hour of Bible reading under the<br />
guidance of their governess, and<br />
weekly church attendance has<br />
been a lifelong pattern for the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> who is said to keep a<br />
well-read Bible by her bedside.<br />
In his autobiography, Just As I Am,<br />
the evangelist Dr Billy Graham<br />
described meeting the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
on several occasions. He said,<br />
‘I always found her very interested<br />
in the Bible and its message.’<br />
Showing more than a passing<br />
interest in the Bible, in her<br />
Christmas broadcasts the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
has referred several times to the<br />
Bible story of the good Samaritan<br />
and the importance of being<br />
good neighbours. She made her<br />
2020 December broadcast from<br />
Windsor Castle, where she had<br />
been isolating with Prince Philip since March and<br />
said ‘The teachings of Christ have served as my inner<br />
light…’. She also summed up Jesus’ story about a good<br />
Samaritan who helped the victim of a robbery:<br />
The man who is robbed and left at<br />
the roadside is saved by someone<br />
who did not share his religion or<br />
culture. This wonderful story of<br />
kindness is still as relevant today.<br />
Good Samaritans have emerged<br />
across society showing care and<br />
respect for all, regardless of<br />
gender, race or background,<br />
reminding us that each one of<br />
us is special and equal in the<br />
eyes of God.<br />
24<br />
Right: with American evangelist Billy Graham<br />
(second left) when he preached at Sandringham,<br />
pictured together with his wife Ruth,<br />
Prince Philip, the <strong>Queen</strong> Mother, and the Rector<br />
of Sandringham, Rev Gerry Murphy, 1984.
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true Witness<br />
This emphasis on serving others<br />
was highlighted in her Devotions<br />
with Jesus’ words from the Bible:<br />
For whoever wants to save<br />
their life will lose it, but<br />
whoever loses their life<br />
for me and for the gospel<br />
will save it.<br />
Mark’s Gospel chapter 8 verse 35<br />
She also used these words to describe the Christian<br />
Gospel, which she promised to maintain:<br />
In the Gospel of Christ is Light out of darkness,<br />
Freedom out of bondage, Life out of death, that<br />
we may walk in the Power of God as his servants<br />
and witnesses. It belongs to my care that the<br />
true profession of this Gospel shall be strong<br />
amongst my people and throughout the world.<br />
Wherefore I must seek by God’s grace to be<br />
a true and faithful witness unto the Lord.<br />
When the <strong>Queen</strong> writes her Christmas broadcasts,<br />
speeches she writes herself, she often talks about<br />
Jesus Christ as the reason for the seasonal<br />
celebrations. She identifies herself as one of Jesus<br />
followers; a ‘faithful witness’ to Jesus.<br />
Archbishop Fisher reminded her<br />
that she was not alone in this<br />
task. He quoted the Bible book of<br />
Acts where Luke, a first century<br />
doctor, wrote:<br />
You will receive power when the<br />
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you<br />
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,<br />
and in all Judea and Samaria, and<br />
to the ends of the earth.<br />
These words, spoken to Jesus’ first century followers,<br />
echo through the ages to promise God’s power and<br />
presence to his followers today.<br />
After considering this verse, the <strong>Queen</strong> was invited<br />
to pray:<br />
Almighty God…grant that the light of thy Gospel<br />
may shine forth bright and clear to all mankind,<br />
and may bring all men to a true faith in thee;<br />
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<br />
She also prayed for the Church:<br />
Lord Jesus, grant me grace to defend the Faith of<br />
thy Church, in my own heart and life; and with the<br />
whole company of the faithful to promote the<br />
work of the Church for the good of this people<br />
and the growth of thy Kingdom. Amen.<br />
Top: leaving a Sunday morning church service, 2020.<br />
Left: talking to her great grandson, Prince George, after<br />
Princess Charlotte’s christening in Sandringham, 2015.<br />
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JoYful faith<br />
The Christmas broadcasts to<br />
the Commonwealth show one<br />
way in which these prayers<br />
about defending the Christian<br />
faith have been answered. The<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> invariably mentions her<br />
faith in Jesus Christ. Also, many of the hundreds<br />
of charities of which the <strong>Queen</strong> is patron actively<br />
‘promote the work of the Church’ and encourage Bible<br />
reading alongside practical, joyful, serving faith. Some<br />
report receiving personal cheques from the <strong>Queen</strong>;<br />
donations which demonstrate her private support<br />
for their work.<br />
More than half a century after her Coronation, at the<br />
2010 inauguration of the General Synod of the Church<br />
of England, she emphasised to the gathering of<br />
church leaders and representatives from churches<br />
throughout England:<br />
What matters is holding firmly to the need to<br />
communicate the gospel with joy and conviction<br />
in our society.<br />
Pointing to Jesus Christ as the example, she added:<br />
At the heart of our faith stand not a preoccupation<br />
with our own welfare and comfort but the concepts<br />
of service and of sacrifice as shown in the life and<br />
teachings of the one who made himself nothing,<br />
taking the very form of a servant.<br />
THE QUEEN’S CHRISTMAS<br />
BROADCASTS<br />
DEMONSTRATE HER<br />
LIVELY, PRACTICAL FAITH<br />
AND HER PERSONAL<br />
COMMITMENT TO<br />
SERVICE AND SACRIFICE<br />
The <strong>Queen</strong>’s life has demonstrated the themes<br />
of joyful faith, service and sacrifice, which she<br />
highlighted at that gathering. Her Christmas<br />
broadcasts demonstrate her lively, practical faith<br />
and her personal commitment to service and<br />
sacrifice as she follows in Jesus’ footsteps.<br />
Her challenge to the Church of England, in a speech<br />
read for her by Prince Edward at the opening of the<br />
2021 General Synod, was ‘to bring the people of this<br />
country to the knowledge and the love of God’. She<br />
acknowledged the country’s ‘richly diverse modern<br />
society’ and recognised ‘the well-being of the nation<br />
depends on the contribution of people of all faiths,<br />
and of none’. But she remains true to her promise<br />
as Defender of the Faith:<br />
…to forward, as much as in me lies, the Church of<br />
England in its work of preaching the Gospel and<br />
building the Church, which is the Body of Christ.<br />
28<br />
Top: visiting the Commonwealth Games Village in Glasgow, 2014.<br />
Right: leaving a service of celebration to mark the 400th<br />
anniversary of the King James Bible at Westminster Abbey, 2011.
29
30
70<br />
4<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
the hiDDen<br />
CereMonY<br />
he most sacred part of the<br />
T<br />
Coronation was the anointing.<br />
Hidden from view by a canopy, the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong>’s regal robes were removed,<br />
leaving her wearing a simple white dress,<br />
as the Devotions reminded her:<br />
…stripped of all royal dignity, to offer myself<br />
in my own person for his work.<br />
Symbolically she was coming to God as an ordinary<br />
woman like any other Christian without any special<br />
status. She was asking God to send his Holy Spirit to<br />
enable her to take on her royal role. In her Devotions<br />
she anticipated this significant moment:<br />
By the anointing God makes, blesses, and<br />
consecrates me <strong>Queen</strong>: and I am till my dying<br />
day ‘his anointed servant’. In the anointing God<br />
creates a new relationship between himself and<br />
me, giving me for my use in this office just those<br />
resources of his divine grace which I need to<br />
dispose hands and heart and mind to do his will.<br />
In answer to his call and consecration, I dare<br />
to breathe the Virgin Mary’s words: ‘Behold the<br />
handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according<br />
to thy word.’<br />
Left: dressed simply in white in preparation for the anointing, 1953.<br />
31
anointeD<br />
At this point in the ceremony the<br />
Archbishop anointed her hands,<br />
chest and head with oil. In the<br />
Devotions, to explain the<br />
significance of the anointing,<br />
Archbishop Fisher pointed to<br />
Jesus and his baptism at the start<br />
of his public ministry. The first<br />
century eye-witnesses reported that the Holy Spirit<br />
descended on Jesus like a dove and God’s voice was<br />
heard from heaven, saying: ‘You are my Son, whom<br />
I love; with you I am well pleased.’<br />
The word ‘Christ’ means<br />
‘anointed one’ and the Christian<br />
journey begins with baptism<br />
in water and the Holy Spirit,<br />
symbolised by the anointing oil.<br />
GOD’S VOICE WAS HEARD<br />
FROM HEAVEN SAYING:<br />
‘YOU ARE MY SON,<br />
WHOM I LOVE ...’<br />
In preparation for her anointing,<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> was invited to pray:<br />
…that my heart may be ready<br />
to receive him in humility<br />
and godly fear.<br />
Come Holy Spirit, and daily increase in all of us,<br />
and in me thy humble servant, thy manifold gifts<br />
of grace; the spirit of wisdom<br />
and understanding; the spirit<br />
of counsel and ghostly strength;<br />
the spirit of knowledge and true<br />
godliness, and fill us, O Lord,<br />
with the spirit of thy holy fear,<br />
now and for ever. Amen.<br />
Top: the Ampulla, which holds the anointing oil,<br />
and the Coronation Spoon.<br />
Bottom: St Edward’s Crown, only used for Coronations.<br />
Right: the crowning.<br />
32
33
34
BlesseD<br />
The purpose of this anointing was<br />
clear. It was an anointing for service<br />
to others. Again the Devotions<br />
reminded the <strong>Queen</strong> of Jesus’<br />
words:<br />
…the greatest among you<br />
should be like the youngest,<br />
and the one who rules like the<br />
one who serves.<br />
Luke’s Gospel chapter 22 verse 26<br />
After the anointing, the <strong>Queen</strong> knelt for a blessing. In<br />
the Devotions she was invited to look ahead to that<br />
moment:<br />
For a brief moment I can be quiet and still,<br />
motionless in spirit, at rest before the Lord,<br />
while the words of blessing flow<br />
round me. As I look forward to<br />
that moment, let me renew in<br />
my heart the joy which is one of<br />
the fruits of the Spirit.<br />
The joy of the Christian does not spring<br />
from external circumstances which are<br />
often perplexing and painful; but from<br />
our experience of the love and<br />
goodness of God, of his presence with us, of his call<br />
to us to share his work and shew forth his praise, and<br />
from the knowledge that our labour is not vain in the<br />
Lord but is for the increase of his Kingdom.<br />
In preparation, she prayed:<br />
O Christ <strong>Our</strong> God<br />
…fill my heart always<br />
with the joy of<br />
faithful service…<br />
O Christ <strong>Our</strong> God …fill my heart always with the<br />
joy of faithful service…<br />
Joy – one of the gifts God’s Holy Spirit gives – is<br />
evidently an aspect of the <strong>Queen</strong>’s<br />
faith which she expects and<br />
experiences as she serves her<br />
people. In 2013, when remembering<br />
Prince George’s christening earlier<br />
that year, she said, ‘As with all who<br />
are christened, George was<br />
baptised into a joyful faith of<br />
Christian duty and service.’<br />
35
servinG<br />
After the anointing,<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> was clothed<br />
in the linen robe and<br />
the supertunica which<br />
correspond to priestly<br />
robes, described in her<br />
Devotions as ‘robes of innocence and of humble<br />
service’.<br />
Her prayer of preparation was based on Jesus’<br />
commandment to love others as God loves us<br />
and to love our neighbours by serving them.<br />
Publicly, neighbourliness is a recurring theme in<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong>’s Christmas broadcasts. In 2000, she<br />
emphasised:<br />
Jesus' simple but powerful teaching: love God and<br />
love thy neighbour as thyself - in other words,<br />
treat others as you would like them to treat you.<br />
JESUS’ SIMPLE BUT<br />
POWERFUL TEACHING:<br />
TREAT OTHERS AS YOU<br />
WOULD LIKE THEM<br />
TO TREAT YOU<br />
36
SMALL PRIVATE ACTS<br />
OF SERVICE TO OTHERS<br />
ARE AN EXPRESSION OF<br />
OBEDIENCE AND LOVE Privately the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
FOR GOD<br />
is also known to be a<br />
good neighbour, taking<br />
a personal interest in the lives of those who live near<br />
her homes and the other people she meets. On one<br />
occasion, when she heard that a journalist in the royal<br />
press pack was going to miss the birth of his child, she<br />
offered him a seat on the royal plane to enable him<br />
to get home in time.<br />
These small private acts of service to others are an<br />
expression of obedience and love for God in answer<br />
to the <strong>Queen</strong>’s prayer for grace, humility and love.<br />
37<br />
Left: the procession leaving the Abbey. The 7.2 km route<br />
to Buckingham Palace took two hours, so it could be<br />
seen by as many people as possible.
38
70<br />
5<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
a CroWn of<br />
thorns<br />
t would seem that the <strong>Queen</strong> is happier<br />
wearing a headscarf than a crown, a cardigan<br />
I<br />
rather than royal robes. She is one of the<br />
world’s richest women, but who would have<br />
have her job? Her role as constitutional monarch<br />
comes with little power and heavy responsibilities.<br />
Archbishop Fisher reminded her of Jesus’ promise<br />
to his followers:<br />
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart!<br />
I have overcome the world.<br />
John’s Gospel chapter 16 verse 33<br />
In her Devotions she reflected on the anointing as<br />
‘inward’ and ‘spiritual’ and the crowning as ‘outward’<br />
and ‘secular’, but both were ‘aspects of my dedication<br />
to God’s service in this office to which he has called<br />
me and of his consecration of me to it’.<br />
Although she was preparing to wear a priceless,<br />
jewelled crown, the Archbishop pointed her to Jesus’<br />
crucifixion and his ‘crown of thorns’:<br />
There is another crown, the crown of thorns:<br />
its wearer wore it for an unworthy people and,<br />
by wearing it, made a way for their return to God.<br />
39
sorroW<br />
The Archbishop encouraged the <strong>Queen</strong> to consider<br />
that her earthly crown derived its significance from<br />
the greatness of the people God was appointing<br />
her to represent. But she recognised:<br />
And so she prayed:<br />
Lord, give me grace so to wear this crown of glory<br />
that I may worthily lead this people to glorify<br />
thee: Give me grace so to wear this crown of<br />
thorns as thereby to manifest thy love to all men;<br />
that, being kept faithful in all things, I may in thy<br />
mercy receive with all faithful people the crown of<br />
glory that fadeth not away: through Jesus Christ<br />
our Lord. Amen.<br />
She asked God to help her to love him for himself<br />
rather for the gifts he gives:<br />
and so, loving thee, to endure temptation and<br />
finish our course with joy.<br />
It brings also its weight of thorns: no one may be<br />
set to represent others, without having to bear the<br />
burden of his [or her] own labours, of his [or her]<br />
own failings, and of the contradictions of evil in<br />
others.<br />
During her 70 year reign, the <strong>Queen</strong> has known her own<br />
burden of sorrow, bereavement, failings and betrayal.<br />
She has taken the responsibilities of the crown to<br />
heart, working long hours dealing with the red box of<br />
government papers every day, except Christmas Day<br />
and Easter Sunday, well into her nineties.<br />
On the whole, her closest friends and staff have been<br />
loyal and discreet. But she has been criticised, with<br />
her usefulness and cost to the nation called into<br />
question. Yet she has not given up on her promise<br />
to serve, and has shown willingness to adapt and<br />
change. In these ways she has proven to be a worthy<br />
wearer of her earthly crown.<br />
40<br />
Left: visiting the village of Aberfan, South Wales, after coal waste<br />
had engulfed the school, killing 116 children and 28 adults, 1966.<br />
Right: outside Buckingham Palace, viewing the tributes left in<br />
memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, 1997.
41
DiffiCultY<br />
The Crown Jewels are kept under guard in the Jewel<br />
House at the Tower of London. Viewing them together<br />
in all their dazzling beauty, it is striking to note how<br />
many are surmounted by a cross.<br />
Archbishop Fisher explained why:<br />
The whole world is subject to the Power and<br />
Empire of Christ our Redeemer but the Cross was<br />
the price which our Saviour paid for the liberty he<br />
has won for us: the Cross is the sign of his Victory,<br />
and his Kingship, and his eternal Kingdom…<br />
The Christian lives in two worlds at once;<br />
the world of Christ’s completed kingdom…<br />
and the world of continued conflict against<br />
the powers of evil…<br />
Conflict and difficulties are a part of all our lives,<br />
including the <strong>Queen</strong>’s life. As she prepared to receive<br />
the crown, the <strong>Queen</strong> was invited to meditate on<br />
words based on Psalm 23, which reminded her of<br />
God’s faithful love and care in all circumstances:<br />
Only by God’s faithfulness and justice and mercy<br />
can I stand before him and trust him, and say:<br />
‘I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod<br />
and thy staff comfort me; thy loving kindness<br />
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’<br />
42
IN 1992, A YEAR WHICH<br />
THE QUEEN DESCRIBED<br />
On the fortieth<br />
AS AN ANNUS HORRIBILIS,<br />
anniversary of her<br />
SHE ACKNOWLEDGED<br />
accession in 1992,<br />
THAT PRAYERS ‘HAVE<br />
a year which the<br />
SUSTAINED ME THROUGH<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> described as<br />
ALL THESE YEARS’.<br />
an annus horribilis,<br />
she acknowledged that<br />
prayers ‘have sustained me through all these years’.<br />
Four days before she gave that speech, Windsor Castle<br />
had been badly damaged by fire. In that year the<br />
marriages of three of her four children had broken<br />
down. Any mother would have been saddened by such<br />
a year, but the <strong>Queen</strong> had to endure it in the full glare<br />
of the scandal-hungry media.<br />
That year, and every year; that week and almost every<br />
week of her life, the <strong>Queen</strong> would be found joining<br />
millions of others in churches around the world,<br />
asking God for wisdom.<br />
Yes, she was crowned with a priceless, bejewelled<br />
crown of gold. But she has also worn her<br />
metaphorical ‘crown of thorns’ with the grace and<br />
faithfulness for which she prayed:<br />
For myself, O Lord, and for my peoples I pray<br />
that thou wilt make our minds to be wise, our<br />
hearts sound, and our wills righteous, according<br />
to thy will and unto thy glory: through Jesus<br />
Christ our Lord. Amen.<br />
43<br />
Left: Windsor Castle after the fire in November 1992.
huMilitY<br />
When thinking about taking her seat on the ancient<br />
Coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
was encouraged to reflect on verses, which<br />
Christians believe were written about Jesus:<br />
Of the greatness of his government<br />
and peace there will be no end.<br />
He will reign on David’s throne and over<br />
his kingdom, establishing and upholding it<br />
with justice and righteousness from that<br />
time on and for ever.<br />
Isaiah chapter 9 verse 7<br />
Outwardly, the <strong>Queen</strong> was to take her place on the<br />
throne; in her heart, she was being invited to<br />
recognise Christ’s greatness and to respond in<br />
humility.<br />
As part of the Communion service that was integral<br />
to the Coronation, the <strong>Queen</strong> was invited to offer<br />
gifts of bread and wine. In a prayer of dedication and<br />
preparation, she prayed:<br />
Top: kneeling in prayer at the Westminster Abbey Silver Jubilee<br />
celebration, 1977.<br />
Bottom: attending a Sunday morning service in Sandringham, 2018.<br />
Right: alone at the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh,<br />
in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, 2021.<br />
44<br />
Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my<br />
memory, my understanding, and all my will,<br />
all I have and possess.<br />
Thou hast given all this to me: to thee, O Lord,<br />
I restore it; all is thine, dispose of it entirely<br />
according to thy will.<br />
Give me thy love and grace, for this is enough<br />
for me.<br />
With that prayer she offered herself to God in humble<br />
and obedient service.
45
46<br />
On honeymoon at Broadlands, Hampshire, 1947.
70<br />
6<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
a sourCe of<br />
strenGth<br />
y friendship I mean the<br />
B ‘<br />
greatest love and the greatest<br />
usefulness, and the most open<br />
communication and the noblest<br />
sacrifice, and the most exemplary<br />
faithfulness and the severest truth, and<br />
the heartiest counsel and the greatest union of<br />
mind, of which brave men and women are capable.’<br />
These words by the 17th century clergyman Jeremy<br />
Taylor were included in the Devotions as the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
was invited to pray for her family and for her husband in<br />
particular. Taylor’s words describe the loving friendship<br />
to which any husband and wife would aspire.<br />
While celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary,<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> acknowledged the support Prince Philip<br />
had given her.<br />
‘He is someone who doesn't take easily to<br />
compliments, but he has quite simply been<br />
my strength and stay all these years,’ she said,<br />
‘and I...owe him a debt greater than he would<br />
ever claim.’<br />
As newly-weds, Elizabeth and Philip enjoyed a brief<br />
near-normal life in Malta while Philip served on HMS<br />
Chequers with the Mediterranean Fleet. Returning<br />
in 2015, the <strong>Queen</strong> said:<br />
‘Visiting Malta is always very special for me.<br />
I remember happy days here with Prince Philip<br />
when we were first married.’<br />
But family life had to take a back seat when she took<br />
on the role of Sovereign.<br />
47
LORD, BE MY STRENGTH,<br />
AND MY HUSBAND’S,<br />
AND LET US…FULFIL THE<br />
CEASELESS DUTIES OF<br />
OUR CALLING,<br />
DutY<br />
FAITHFULLY AND WELL<br />
She had seen the price<br />
her father had paid in<br />
accepting the duties of kingship. In preparing for her<br />
Coronation, when life would change forever for the<br />
couple, the <strong>Queen</strong> gave thanks to God for her family,<br />
for the memory of her father, for her mother and<br />
sister, for her husband, her children and her home.<br />
And she prayed:<br />
Lord, be thou my strength, and my husband’s,<br />
and let us, united in thy faith and fear, help one<br />
another to fulfil the ceaseless duties of our calling,<br />
faithfully and well.<br />
The duties of the <strong>Queen</strong> have indeed been ceaseless.<br />
Even when she takes time out in Balmoral or<br />
Sandringham, the Government’s red boxes are still a<br />
daily responsibility. She has needed God’s refreshment<br />
and grace, as she prayed:<br />
Lord, help us to find in our home and children<br />
a constant refreshment of spirit and renewal<br />
of grace.<br />
And she prayed for their work as a royal family:<br />
Into thy hands, O Lord, we commend ourselves.<br />
Be with us in our going out and our coming in.<br />
Strengthen us for the work that thou hast given<br />
us to do. Defend us with thy heavenly grace, that<br />
we may continue thine for ever and daily increase<br />
in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until we come to<br />
thy everlasting Kingdom; through Jesus Christ our<br />
Lord. Amen.<br />
48<br />
At work in Buckingham Palace reading daily correspondence<br />
from her red box of official papers. Top: in 1959. Bottom: in 2015.<br />
Right: three generations of royals during the G7 summit in Cornwall, 2021.
49
50<br />
The <strong>Queen</strong> and Prince Philip with their children, 1969.
faMilY<br />
Although<br />
normal family<br />
life has hardly<br />
been possible<br />
THE IMMEDIATE FAMILY<br />
OF GRANDPARENTS,<br />
PARENTS AND CHILDREN<br />
…IS STILL THE CORE<br />
OF A THRIVING<br />
COMMUNITY<br />
for the <strong>Queen</strong>, she places a high value on family as<br />
‘the core of a thriving community’.<br />
At Christmas 2007, the year she and Prince Philip<br />
celebrated their Diamond Wedding, she said:<br />
In my experience, the positive value of a happy<br />
family is one of the factors of human existence<br />
that has not changed. The immediate family<br />
of grandparents, parents and children, together<br />
with their extended family, is still the core<br />
of a thriving community.<br />
She then reflected on the life of Jesus and his<br />
earthly family:<br />
…a family in very distressed circumstances.<br />
Mary and Joseph found no room at the inn; they<br />
had to make do in a stable, and the new-born<br />
Jesus had to be laid in a manger. This was a<br />
family which had been shut out. Perhaps it was<br />
because of this early experience that, throughout<br />
his ministry, Jesus of Nazareth reached out<br />
and made friends with people whom others<br />
ignored or despised. It was in this way that<br />
he proclaimed his belief that, in the end, we are<br />
all brothers and sisters in one human family.<br />
Top: with Prince Charles and Princess Anne at the Royal Windsor<br />
Horse Show, 1956.<br />
Bottom: <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth the <strong>Queen</strong> Mother on her 80th birthday<br />
with her daughters.<br />
51
eXaMPle<br />
The inspiration gained from Jesus is something the<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> wishes for her own family, as she said in 1978:<br />
Christians have the compelling example of the life<br />
and teaching of Christ and, for myself, I would like<br />
nothing more than that my grandchildren should<br />
hold dear his ideals which have helped and<br />
inspired so many previous generations.<br />
As she said in 2018:<br />
Through the many changes I have seen over the<br />
years, faith, family and friendship have been not<br />
only a constant for me but a source of personal<br />
comfort and reassurance.<br />
52<br />
Top: The royal family on Buckingham Palace balcony, 2018.<br />
Bottom: with Princess Anne and daughter-in-law Sophie, Countess<br />
of Wessex, at the Centenary of the Women’s Institute, 2015.
53<br />
With Prince Philip in 2007 on their Diamond Wedding anniversary<br />
revisiting Broadlands where they spent their wedding night.
54
70<br />
7<br />
oUR fAITHFUL QUEEN<br />
YEARS OF<br />
FAITH &<br />
SERVICE<br />
the PeaCe of<br />
GoD<br />
O<br />
n the day before her Coronation,<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong> was invited to focus on<br />
God’s gift of peace with these words:<br />
The peace of God, which transcends all<br />
understanding, will guard your hearts and your<br />
minds in Christ Jesus.<br />
Paul’s letter to the Philippians chapter 4 verse 7<br />
The Devotions reminded her:<br />
The Peace of God will be the last word of the great<br />
service, and draws to an end this preparation for it.<br />
I may be carried to the heights above of exaltation<br />
or the depths of difficulty and depression: but the<br />
Peace of God will never leave me.<br />
All that has been good in my life and helped to<br />
build me into the Peace of God – all people and<br />
places that have influenced me and made me for<br />
this hour, the glorious example of those who have<br />
gone before me, the stedfast [sic] love of those<br />
my dearest who surround me; the generous trust<br />
and affection of my peoples, the goodness of so<br />
many to me.<br />
But above all God has taken me into his peace<br />
and I praise him for his being what he is, for his<br />
goodness, his enabling power, the certainty<br />
of his unfailing love.<br />
Left: ‘The Coronation Theatre’ painted by Ralph Heimans<br />
in 2012 portraying Her Majesty in Westminster Abbey.<br />
55
toleranCe<br />
She was invited to pray:<br />
Lord, may nothing ever separate me from thy<br />
peace; neither the extremes of joy nor the depths<br />
of sorrow, neither the acclamation of my people<br />
nor my own fatigue or secret anxieties, neither the<br />
demands of my sovereignty nor the claims of my<br />
family life; neither health nor sickness, national<br />
trials nor personal loss, times of tribulation nor<br />
times of wealth. In all things, Lord, keep me<br />
in thy love and peace.<br />
Have her prayers been answered? Peace is one of<br />
the qualities God’s Holy Spirit grows in the lives<br />
of Christians along with other evidence of God’s<br />
Holy Spirit.<br />
Those who have seen the <strong>Queen</strong>’s life behind closed<br />
doors are the most qualified to comment on which<br />
qualities are evident in her life.<br />
Top: with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge,<br />
during a visit to Nottingham, 2012.<br />
Bottom: with the Prince of Wales at the Braemar<br />
Highland Games, Aberdeenshire, 2006.<br />
During a toast to the <strong>Queen</strong> at a lunch celebrating<br />
their golden wedding anniversary, the Duke of<br />
Edinburgh said: ‘Tolerance is the one essential<br />
ingredient in any happy marriage.... You can take<br />
it from me, the <strong>Queen</strong> has the quality of tolerance<br />
in abundance.’<br />
56
57<br />
The <strong>Queen</strong> with the Duke of Edinburgh, waving to crowds in Manchester, 2020.
58<br />
Honouring the fallen at the grave of the Unknown Warrior in<br />
London's Westminster Abbey, November 2020.
CuriositY<br />
How does the <strong>Queen</strong> cope with the endless rounds of<br />
official duties? Princess Beatrice said in 2017, ‘I find my<br />
grandmother inspiring every day because her<br />
overwhelming sense of duty is linked with an<br />
overwhelming curiosity. Every day she's curious to<br />
learn something new, to do something new…she goes<br />
out into the community with a genuine curiosity as<br />
to how she can be a force for good in the world.’<br />
Although the <strong>Queen</strong> mixes easily with statesmen,<br />
celebrities and dignitaries, and has been celebrated,<br />
honoured and respected around the world for more<br />
than 70 years, she has always appreciated the value and<br />
contribution of ordinary citizens. At Christmas in 1954,<br />
she sent a special message of encouragement to those<br />
people whose names ‘will never be household words’:<br />
May you be proud to remember – as I am myself –<br />
how much depends on you … what you do is always<br />
of real value and importance to your fellow men.<br />
In 2020 she talked about the sacrifices made in the<br />
Covid pandemic and compared the selfless duty of<br />
so many with the sacrifices made by combatants in<br />
the First World War. Reflecting on the tomb of the<br />
Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, she said:<br />
The Unknown Warrior was not exceptional. That’s<br />
the point. He represents millions like him who<br />
throughout our history have put the lives of others<br />
above their own, and will be doing so today. For<br />
me, this is a source of enduring hope in difficult<br />
and unpredictable times.<br />
THE UNKNOWN<br />
WARRIOR REPRESENTS<br />
MILLIONS LIKE HIM<br />
staBilitY<br />
WHO HAVE PUT THE<br />
In that year when<br />
LIVES OF OTHERS<br />
Covid-19 had forced<br />
ABOVE THEIR OWN<br />
so many people –<br />
including the <strong>Queen</strong><br />
– into isolation, she promised her prayerful support:<br />
Of course, for many, this time of year will be<br />
tinged with sadness: some mourning the loss of<br />
those dear to them, and others missing friends<br />
and family members distanced for safety, when<br />
all they’d really want for Christmas is a simple hug<br />
or a squeeze of the hand. If you are among them,<br />
you are not alone, and let me assure you of my<br />
thoughts and prayers.<br />
Her words and example brought comfort and<br />
encouragement to many.<br />
What has been the source of her stability and peace?<br />
As she said at Christmas in 2002:<br />
I know just how much I rely on my own faith to<br />
guide me through the good times and the bad.<br />
Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only<br />
way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to<br />
take the long view, to give of my best in all that<br />
the day brings, and to put my trust in God. Like<br />
others of you who draw inspiration from your own<br />
faith, I draw strength from the message of hope<br />
in the Christian gospel.<br />
58
last WorDs<br />
As her Coronation ended, the <strong>Queen</strong> left Westminster<br />
Abbey to the sound of the national anthem:<br />
‘…long live our noble queen, God save the <strong>Queen</strong>’.<br />
Seventy years later, after one of the longest reigns in<br />
history, the prayers of that song have been answered.<br />
As the Devotions came to an end on the evening of her<br />
Coronation Day, the prayer she was invited to say was<br />
once again a prayer of commitment to God:<br />
Lord, this day thou hast been gracious unto thy<br />
servant. Thou hast filled my cup with thy goodness<br />
to overflowing. With a humble spirit and a<br />
thankful heart, I commit myself to thy care and<br />
will lay me down in peace and take my rest. Amen.<br />
And finally, the last prayer in the Devotions…<br />
a prayer for each of us, for all of our lives:<br />
God be in my head,<br />
and in my understanding.<br />
God be in mine eyes,<br />
and in my looking.<br />
God be in my mouth,<br />
and in my speaking.<br />
God be in my heart,<br />
and in my thinking.<br />
God be at my end,<br />
and my departing.<br />
Right: crowds on The Mall, London, celebrating<br />
the <strong>Queen</strong>’s Diamond Jubilee, 2012.<br />
60
HOPE Together gathers Christians<br />
to make Jesus known, helping to<br />
change lives and transform<br />
communities through everyone,<br />
everywhere knowing Jesus. Find<br />
out more at hopetogether.org.uk<br />
Author: Catherine Butcher<br />
Design: Darren Southworth<br />
S2.Design<br />
Photos: Alamy, BBC/Bob Cosford,<br />
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Printed: Belmont Press Ltd<br />
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God’s Word so that their lives are<br />
transformed through a relationship<br />
with Jesus Christ. biblica.com<br />
The <strong>Queen</strong> frequently refers to<br />
Jesus in her Christmas broadcasts.<br />
Use this QR code to start reading<br />
Luke’s Gospel, one<br />
of four accounts<br />
of Jesus’ life in<br />
the Bible.<br />
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61
As the <strong>Queen</strong> approached the day of her<br />
Coronation, she was given a slim volume of<br />
daily Bible readings and prayers to use as she<br />
prepared for that powerful Westminster<br />
Abbey service. This new book draws on those<br />
prayers, Bible verses and her speeches to<br />
show how the <strong>Queen</strong>’s Christian faith<br />
enabled her to get ready to reign, and how<br />
that faith has sustained her in the life that<br />
would follow.<br />
The whole of life is a journey to God…I have<br />
not chosen this office for myself: he has<br />
appointed me to it, and I go to be consecrated<br />
to it by him…And because he leads, I may<br />
follow in complete trust.<br />
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