It was a heart-wrenching moment when I heard the official announcement that our Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, had passed away.
It was even more of a wrench when at first it seemed that she was very ill and weak, and we were wondering why the presenters were all wearing black, then the next moment we find out that she had passed away in the afternoon.
It then made me realise that it wasn’t about us learning the fact but that it was a time for the family and the announcement would come when they were ready, after all the Royal Family are as much a real family as we are.
When I was thinking about this letter I pondered on when the Queen mostly entered into our family lives and that was of course on Christmas day.
The Queen’s radio and TV broadcasts
The Church of Scotland
Since her accession to the throne in 1952, the Queen has continued the practice of her father and grandfather by broadcasting each Christmas Day to the Commonwealth of Nations.
These broadcasts began on radio, but were televised from 1957 onwards. On five other occasions, she has broadcast to the nation – at the outbreak of the Gulf War (1991), after the death of Princess Diana (1997), after the death of the Queen Mother (2002), at her Diamond Jubilee (2012), and during the COVID-19 crisis (2020).
Her messages are marked by several common themes that mattered greatly to her: a commitment to the Commonwealth as a partnership bound by friendship and shared goals; a determination to serve people irrespective of rank, situation or circumstance; a love of her own family across its different generations; her devotion to the example of Jesus; a sense of the common good of the peoples of the United Kingdom; and a conviction that the most important people were often those who worked faithfully for their local communities.
God bless, Revd. Justin
