Sermon for Choral Evensong (Queen’s Platinum Jubilee)
Pentecost 2022 Cathedral Evensong (Queen’s Platinum Jubilee)
John Hind
A long term member of the Queen’s personal staff who had served her since she was Princess Elizabeth once described her as “so beautiful and so dutiful.”
“Beautiful and dutiful.” Such a graceful description - and especially fitting as a text for this evening’s celebration, falling as it does on the Feast of Pentecost, when the Church commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit, the giver of grace. Grace of course is gratuitous, it is a free gift, abundantly available to all who will receive it. Nor, despite the rather debased way in which the word is often applied to appearances, is it primarily a matter of aesthetics but rather one of love and service.
The prophet Isaiah saw God’s Spirit as giving wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. These seven gifts of the Spirit enable people to live full, enriched and enriching lives, resulting in what St Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
In this great weekend of celebration, we thank God for the evidence of these gifts and their fruits in the life and ministry of Elizabeth our Queen over the past 70 years, wonderfully summed up in those epithets, beautiful and dutiful.
I suspect that many of you will, like me, have been thinking about occasions when the Queen, however remotely, has featured in our lives. I shall never forget the moment in 1952 when I rushed home from my kindergarten in tears to tell my mother that the King had died; nor when my parents took me to some rather more well-heeled friends who possessed a television set to watch the coronation on a tiny black and white screen; then some months later when I stood on my village street to get a glimpse of the new Queen as she drove by, part of her efforts to be accessible to as many people as possible. I doubt I am alone in such memories.
That is course is all a long time ago, but that very fact is a reminder of just how long Elizabeth has been our Queen. From the Korean War, through the Cuban missile crisis, to the fall of the Soviet Union to the present war in Ukraine; from the ending of post war austerity to the dawn of what has been described as an apocalyptic economic crisis; from the early years of the NHS to its present challenges; from the dying days of Empire through the vision of a renewed commonwealth to attacks on younger royals as they visit former colonies - the list could go on, but by any reckoning, the changes during the reign of Elizabeth II knock those during the reign of Elizabeth I into a cocked hat! Of those years, we shall all have our memories. For me, one event that stands out is of her visit to Moscow in 1994 when I was Bishop in Europe and was delighted to welcome
the Queen to St Andrew’s Anglican church in Moscow, and even more delighted by her active engagement in our attempts to reclaim title to the church from the Russian authorities.
And through all this, not to mention through the personal difficulties and tragedies that have affected her family, “so beautiful and so dutiful.”
A moment ago I linked beauty and duty - features of grace - with the gift of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit alone who provides and undergirds lasting character, and so not just this evening , this weekend and this year but every day we thank God for how he has shaped and formed our Queen to be a model not only of theological virtues, but also of their secular reflection in the principles of public life, the Nolan Principles: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership.
While all the principles are of equal importance, it is worth dwelling for a moment on the requirement of accountability. In the Book of Common Prayer order for Holy Communion, the priest prays: “So rule the heart of thy chosen servant Elizabeth our Queen and Governor, that she (knowing whose minister she is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory.” At Christmas in 2000, Her Majesty spoke of her “own personal accountability before God.” In her very first Christmas broadcast, in 1952, even before her coronation, she had said, “Pray for me … 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.”
It is significant that she was aware that her first duty was not to her subjects, but to God. It is important to remember this because, in a modern democratic state, it is easy to imagine that her authority is some way comes from the ballot box, with her role being a rather mysterious reflection of the popular will, giving an aura of supernatural validation to the government of the day
The ballot box does indeed legitimate the authority of those who exercise temporal (and temporary) rule, but to reign is something else. In another broadcast, at Christmas 1967, the Queen herself reflected on this distinction: “I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations”.
I have already quoted a number of the Queen’s broadcasts touching on the theme of faith. Perhaps you will indulge me for a few moments more if I mention three more recent addresses in which she has specifically referred to the universality of God’s call: In 2013 “faith, reflection, meditation and prayer help us to renew ourselves in God’s love, as we strive daily to become better people. The Christmas message shows us that this love is for everyone. There is no one beyond its reach.”
In the following year, at Christmas 2014, she said “Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose birth we celebrate today, is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out his hands in love, acceptance and healing. Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people, of whatever faith or none”
And in 2016
Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love, whoever does them and whatever they themselves believe.’
I am sure that in time to come whole books will be written analysing and commenting on the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts and other addresses. (I am not thinking of the Queen’s speech at the State Opening of Parliament!) They do display remarkable consistency along with increasing depth, maturity and confidence - as is only to be expected - but over the years Her Majesty has laid more and more emphasis on the themes of reconciliation, forgiveness harmony and unity that lie at the heart of the gospel of the Prince of peace. What more could one ask of a head of state?