UK in transition: Keep calm and carry on!

The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, after her remarkable 70-year reign, inevitably causes great uncertainty for the future. How might Britain change under her successor?

She has been a focus for stability and national identity in a fast-changing world, and a voice for the centrality of Christian faith in the public square. None of us knows the full extent of her influence behind the scenes, but many Christians assume that she has been a bulwark against ever-advancing secularism and progressivism. They fear that her death will allow these forces greater sway, and that the very integrity of the United Kingdom may be more difficult to sustain without her.

As Christians we are thankful to God for the blessings we enjoyed under her reign, but I think we can be more sanguine about the prospects for future. Britain is a constitutional monarchy, and real power and authority lies with Parliament. The transition from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss is ultimately more significant than the passing of the symbolic Crown from mother to son. The institutions of the State are designed to ensure stability and continuity, and it is likely that King Charles III will prove to be a very conventional monarch, because the system requires him to conform to a largely ceremonial role.

The forces that we might fear are not new, and in the mood of nostalgia that inevitably accompanies the passing of an era we can easily forget just how much the country changed during her reign. Britain has transitioned from an Empire to a Commonwealth, from a mono-ethnic to a multi-ethnic community, from a Christian culture to a multi-faith country. We have joined and left the European Union. We have seen near-religious revival in the Billy Graham crusades of the earliest years of her reign, followed by the long decline of the church in the aftermath of the 1960s sexual revolution. The foundations for a progressive tolerant society were laid in the mid-1960s with legislation introducing abortion, liberalising divorce, and decriminalising homosexuality. Princess Margaret was barred from marrying a decorated war hero because he was a divorcee; and now three of the Queen’s children have divorced and the new Queen Consort is also a divorcee.

The long reign of the Queen has perhaps prevented the country, and especially Christians, from recognising just how much has changed. The new reign will not be revolutionary, but it will embrace these changes more thoroughly. There will likely be further incremental changes, such as a reduced Royal Family and greater informality, that will reflect the greater democratisation of society. Christianity may not seem so central in national life, but the foundation for the religious liberties we enjoy are also deep rooted and are not susceptible to change simply because of a new monarch. They are enshrined in common law, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

There are some indications that the liberal-progressive bandwagon is running into difficulties, especially over issues such as transgenderism and the collapse of the family. It will be curtailed not by a monarch but because of its own internal contradictions, evident failures, and because it is no longer novel. The greater danger is that an intolerant reactionary nationalism takes its place.

Evangelicals therefore face exactly the same challenges in this new reign as they did for most of the late Queen’s reign. The church as a cultural institution is declining at ever-increasing speed, with diminishing congregations of largely older people. It is being destroyed by false teaching that seeks to accommodate with the culture, especially on issues of sexuality. It hankers for a lost past rather than accepting the present reality of a secular state that accords Christianity no privileged position in the marketplace of religions and spiritualities.

Our task therefore remains essentially the same. We need to hold firmly to the glorious gospel message and share it boldly with a country that is spiritually lost and is desperate need of salvation. We can take great encouragement that over recent years the faithful evangelical church has been slowly growing. People are being converted, churches are being planted and communities being blessed. This ongoing gospel work at local level will not cease just because there is a change of monarchy or government, because King Jesus continues to reign at the right hand of His Father, fulfilling His eternal purpose to save a multitude of people from every tribe and nation, including our own.

The changes that may be precipitated by the transfer of earthly power do not change our mission. They may offer new opportunities or pose new challenges. More likely there will be broad continuity. We should not worry unduly what the future might hold. Instead, we need to be strong in the faith, willing to serve sacrificially and confident in our eternal hope. Above all, we need to pray that the Lord might have mercy on our nation and that the gospel might go forth with power and bear much fruit for the everlasting kingdom. The attitude that we most need at this time is one that HM the Queen so consistently displayed: ‘Keep calm and carry on’.