Dear Editor,
I thought Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was a poignant farewell. It reflected the public’s respect, gratitude and genuine affection. She really was our long-lived and gracious Queen.
What made her our best-loved monarch was something which is difficult to define. At her coronation, in 1953, her grace and dignity were already very evident. The scale of national pride and affection for her was already abundant. It was expressed jubilantly by a post-war generation striving to emerge from an existence of monochrome austerity.
The Archbishop of Canterbury made the point that promises made by Elizabeth as a young royal and then at her coronation could not have been more faithfully and dutifully kept. Still, the testimony given of her personal faith in Jesus Christ was, for most, even with the best will in the world, an ineffable and indefinable consideration to grasp.
Some have called the death of Queen Elizabeth II the final solemn act of the post-Second World War era. In a worldly sense perhaps it is mostly the people of my generation and older who can really regret her departure. In these very uncertain times which lay ahead her leaving this world will tempt many to repine morbidly about the future.
Ecclesiastes 7:10 says, ‘Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.’
Despite immense material benefits, during these last 70 years the Queen’s reign has involved her and her family in all the weals and woes common to mankind. She was not a person immune to personal heartache. At home or abroad she understood the tragedy of many calamitous historical events.
One might imagine, from media coverage, that the Queen’s fortitude for over 70 years was motivated by a stoic attachment to values. It seems to me prosaic to restrict her life to the value she put on duty and service to the nation.
A more salient explanation of the Queen’s dignity as an individual can be found, not in a chosen system of values, but in the faith she placed in a Person whose light, goodness and glory has never been equalled in the whole history of the world.
Is it an exaggeration to believe that it was evident that Queen Elizabeth II personally bowed in humble and conscious allegiance to an eternal King whose life she understood was graciously and gloriously laid down for her as one of His own servants? Such is the gospel invitation to believe that goes out to the ends of the world.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Bettany, By email
