Elizabeth II, servant queen
The trustees of the Christian Evidence Society were so sorry to hear the sad news yesterday of the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96.
The Queen was a wonderful example not only of her devoted service and steadfastness, spanning the 70 years of her reign, but also of living faith in Jesus Christ, and love for God. As monarch, she was the supreme governor of the Church of England, and had inherited the title ‘defender of the faith’, but it was always clear that the Christian faith was personally her own.
At the beginning of her reign, in her first Christmas message of 1952, she asked people to pray for her coronation day:
‘I want to ask you all, whatever your religion may be, to pray for me on that day – to pray that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’
At the turn of the millennium, she devoted her broadcast of Christmas 2000 to giving an account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and then said:
‘To many of us our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.’
We give thanks to God for Queen Elizabeth’s role as a servant of God, for her faithful leadership of our country, and for providing thoughtful encouragement to people of faith everywhere by expressing her own Christian faith so steadfastly.
We pray for King Charles, and for the royal family.
