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Reverend Lesley writes…


The Queen has been reigning for 60 years! God bless Her Majesty!


Whether staunch royalists or committed republicans, many of us wish Queen Elizabeth II well in her Diamond Jubilee year. In the United Kingdom we are unique in being both citizens in a democracy with an elected government as well as subjects of a crowned monarch. Whatever your political views it has to be said that the presence of Her Majesty has provided a sense of continuity as governments of various hues, with their Prime Ministers of various abilities, have come and gone.

It is also worth noting in passing, that just as we did not choose our Queen, she didn’t really choose it either. The only choice she had was to do her duty, or resign from it, as her uncle had done when he abdicated in 1936.

The media have inundated us with documentaries and retrospectives of the Queen and her reign. I have watched many of them with interest, hoping to get a glance at the real person beneath the pomp and ceremony. The Queen has been on the throne for more than my entire life. I’m a genuine Elizabethan!

Whilst we can never really get to know a public person through the media, what I have seen in these programmes has impressed me. I see a person genuinely committed to the role in the public life that she occupies. She sees her monarchy as much as being the servant of her subjects as being served by them. What a contrast to the first Queen Elizabeth! Even though she is now very senior in years she travels widely at home and abroad, and with each visit gives a positive image of this nation of ours.

I also understand from these programmes that she is a woman of deep and sincere faith, a genuine personal faith, not just deriving from the fact that she is the titular head of the Church of England. It is this that sustains her in the work that she does for all of us. Although she has come from a very privileged background, and may not have first-hand experience of poverty, unemployment and social tensions, she does take an interest in the country she rules. Her family life has also had to contend with marital breakdown and illness, just as many of our families have to face.

I have included here a prayer that has been written for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. We will be using it at St Luke’s and St Andrew’s as we celebrate the Jubilee. You may also like to use it.

A Prayer for the Diamond Jubilee
The following Prayer, written at The Queen's direction by the Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral for Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, will be used in the Jubilee Thanksgiving Service in St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday 5 June. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have commended it for use throughout the Church of England. Anyone is welcome to use this prayer.

God of time and eternity,
whose Son reigns as servant, not master;
we give you thanks and praise
that you have blessed this Nation, the Realms and Territories
with Elizabeth
our beloved and glorious Queen.
In this year of Jubilee,
grant her your gifts of love and joy and peace
as she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God
and in devoted service to her lands and peoples,
and those of the Commonwealth,
now and all the days of her life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The first weekend in June is set to be a time of national celebration. However you will be spending it, I wish you well. I hope, too, to see you at one or more of the various events organised to celebrate this occasion.

God Bless Her Majesty!
Revd Lesley Anne

Contact Information
Telephone. Revd Lesley Anne Phone & Fax 01924 283533 Mobile 07952 375176
Email. revles.mattacks@hotmail.co.uk