Because we bear your name

Bishop Paul’s letter

Rev Paul Smith
Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand

I watched our new King Charles dwell silently and pensively with the words of the anthem during his dear mother’s funeral, ‘God save our King’. Throughout his life, he had been praying ‘God save the Queen’.

Charles has taken up the work of monarch of the Commonwealth, in the wake of seven decades of extraordinary servant leadership. But an outstanding tradition that he follows from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is her Christian witness as a head of state in our modern world.

Young Princess Elizabeth was baptised into Christ in the chapel at Buckingham Palace in 1926 and was confirmed and married in the Church of England. Throughout their lives, ever in the public eye, Queen Elizabeth and her beloved husband Prince Philip served as a faithful Christian couple. Upon her accession to the throne in 1952, she became the head of the Church of England and was its longest-serving supreme governor.

In her first Christmas broadcast after her father King George VI had died in 1952, Elizabeth spoke of her own prayerful yearning, ‘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’.

This was a yearning she ever continued throughout her 70 years of service as Queen of both Australia and New Zealand, as she lived by faith under a very public scrutiny. She worked with 15 British Prime Ministers and nearly 200 different Heads of State in the various places of the Commonwealth.

As we entered the new millennium in the year 2000, Elizabeth took the opportunity to share a deeply personal witness to her own walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. In her Christmas broadcast that year, she said, ‘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’.

At the same time Elizabeth has been praying, we have been praying for her. Many of the readers of The Lutheran in New Zealand and Australia will remember school days singing ‘God save the Queen’ before class every day. This anthem is a prayer, asking God to guide and bless the leader of our countries. God has answered Elizabeth’s prayer and our prayers for her.

At Her Majesty’s funeral, the preacher, Archbishop Justin Welby, left the listener in no doubt regarding Elizabeth’s walk by faith. He concluded his message with an invitation for listeners to take up the hope that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Archbishop Welby proclaimed, ‘Her Late Majesty’s broadcast during COVID lockdown ended with: “We will meet again”, words of hope from a song of Vera Lynn. Christian hope means certain expectation of something not yet seen. Christ rose from the dead and offers life to all, abundant life now and life with God in eternity. As the Christmas carol says, “where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in”. We will all face the merciful judgement of God: we can all share the Queen’s hope which in life and death inspired her servant leadership. Service in life, hope in death. All who follow the Queen’s example, and inspiration of trust and faith in God, can with her say: “We will meet again”.’

Our two nations have paused to express our thanksgiving to God, for the life and witness of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. As Christian people of this Commonwealth, we commit ourselves to praying for Charles III and all our leaders, both in our private prayers and in the liturgies of our congregations and Lutheran communities.

God save our gracious King.

In Christ,
Paul

Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name.