麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Anne Easter

Good morning!

I am absolutely certain that the song most sung across the length and the breadth of this country today will be our National Anthem, God save the Queen, just as it has been sung to the reigning monarch of this country for the past two hundred and seventy six years.

I wonder if anyone鈥檚 ever tried to count the number of times that Her Majesty has heard that tune? It must be in millions because it鈥檚 played wherever she goes, on athletic tracks and at theatres, in schools and on railway stations, everywhere, people wave and sing the hymn, God save the Queen.

When I was a Chaplain to Her Majesty, I found it terribly moving to stand with thousands of others and sing the Anthem in the presence of the Queen herself at her garden parties; Her Majesty looked so diminutive as, with her gentle smile and great dignity as ever, she listened again to her song.

Do we think that, if it were not sung, God would somehow abandon the Queen? If we didn鈥檛 remind God, might God forget to guard and guide our Sovereign lady? Of course not! So why sing it then?

Surely, we sing that hymn so that our sister in Christ who has the exacting and relentless task of being the Queen is surrounded and borne up by our prayers, so that, together with her own prayers, she has the strength and faith to continue. With all our prayers and good wishes, Her Majesty is empowered to be an example of strength and faith, sometimes against all the odds, and to remain gracious, curious, tolerant and resolved to serve and, in so doing, inspires us to do the same.

God save the Queen.

Amen.

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