After careful consideration, following the death of Her Majesty The Queen, it was decided that the final 2022 show of Kynren would go ahead on Saturday 10 September. Bishop Paul led a tribute and prayers before the show commenced, which can be read below.
When the announcement came that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, ‘The Queen’, had died we were all shocked. We all knew that this day would come. She was a very fine age of 96; for a long while her health had been failing. But only on Tuesday had we not seen her, frail yes leaning on her stick, but beaming brightly, and working, saying farewell to her 14th Prime Minister and welcoming her 15th? Surely she was going to continue to serve us for a while? But no; perhaps for her with a sense of service complete it was time for her to finally meet the God whom she had loved and served all her life face to face. So unexpectedly quickly she left her family and us.
We know that this is an immensely deep loss for her family for whom she was beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Queen Elizabeth was a family woman. She cared deeply. She had fun with them. She never stopped loving them. We now pray for them in their grief.
The story of us, as a nation, has for the past 70 years been intimately tied to the presence and reign of ‘our Queen’. We have all lived through the second great Elizabethan age; the longest reign of a monarch in our history.
One of Queen Elizabeth’s great gifts was that although her life was one of privilege, and in many ways distance, we actually all felt that she was ‘one of us’. More than this people knew that she was ‘for us’. Her engagement with people from every walk of life; her capacity to attentively listen to each individual whom she met; her noticing of small children with flowers communicated to everyone that she valued us. Even though we may never have met her we knew that if we had she would value us. She valued us not so much for what we do, although she always was interested in this, but far more for simply who we are.
Here she reflected her own conviction that everyone mattered to her because everyone matters to God. She undertook her whole reign with the deep conviction that this was God’s call on her life; a call not to ‘reign over us’ but to ‘reign for us’ in a life of complete service and duty.
During her reign this nation, and world, has undergone huge transformations. Yet through it all Queen Elizabeth remained constant; yet able to adapt to the change. In this she assured us all that we are held together, and able to adapt together. She was the most remarkable woman of whom as a nation we are rightly deeply proud, and for whom we are thankful to her, and to God.
We mourn with sadness and thankfulness. We will hold her memory. But she herself was preparing us for this new era; so now as we say, ‘Thank You Ma’am’ we also cry, ‘Long live King Charles III’.
Let us pray
Gracious God,
We give thanks for the life of your servant Queen Elizabeth,
for her faith and her dedication to duty.
Bless our nation as we mourn her death
and may her example continue to inspire us.
Comfort the Royal Family in their sadness
And bless King Charles in his new responsibilities.
We pray through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.