Queen Margrethe of Denmark astonished the world when she abdicated after almost 52 years on the throne.
Margrethe attends church services regularly, but the Christian faith only began to have meaning for her when she became Queen. ‘I felt very, very strongly that I was not alone, and then it grew,’ she has said.
But Christians are worried the new King, Frederik X, seems less interested in Christianity than his mother. In 2017, he said he ‘finds it hard to believe that a man with a big beard would be sitting on the clouds’. And his apparent multi-faith agenda is another concern. Tobias Haslund-Thomsen, is an evangelist and pastor with European Missionary Fellowship at Haven Church, Aarhus – Denmark’s second-largest city. He said: ‘When Frederik gave his coronation speech he also introduced his royal motto, which is “United, committed, for the Kingdom of Denmark”. He referred to higher powers but failed to mention God. He announced that he will be “a King of tomorrow” while he was wearing a Buddhist Shamballa bracelet’.
The monarch is legally required to be a member of the country’s Lutheran Church and head of that church. After the coronation, it was reported that he saw Christianity as part of Danish history and culture, and that he prayed the Lord´s Prayer with his children.
Haslund-Thomsen added: ‘The King’s role in the church is symbolic, but there is concern that the King, along with his wife the Queen, who has been involved in LGBTQ issues, will push to modernise the Royal House and the Church. Even the King is powerless against the pervasive secularism in Denmark and in the Lutheran Church.
‘We can only pray, as his mother the Queen did as she abdicated: “God preserve (save) the King.”’
