Below, five team members offer personal tributes to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II following her recent death. Feel free to add your own tributes below.
A Great Lady (by Clifford Hill)
The death of our beloved Queen marks the end of an era and an additional ratcheting up of the forces of change that are shaking the nation. The spontaneous outpouring of grief among ordinary people is quite outstanding. Most people who had never met her personally felt that she was somehow part of their family, which is a remarkable tribute to a remarkable lady.
Queen Elizabeth II began her reign as a young woman of 25 suddenly thrust into being at the head of the monarchy through the untimely death of her father who, himself, had never wanted the role. She learned the biblical values of the Kingdom of God from him – the values of service, faithfulness, integrity, and steadfastness – all of which she followed to the end, even working until a day or two before she died.
I was a boy in London all through the bombing of World War 2, and I remember King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (our Queen’s parents) visiting the bomb sites and sharing their faith and comforting distressed people. Together they were a pillar of strength in the nation that was being shaken to its foundations. Our Queen has followed that tradition with great faithfulness, holding the nation steady even in difficult times for her own family, such as the death of Princess Diana.
Our Queen was undoubtedly a Spirit-filled believer who was not afraid to speak openly of her faith.
It was her faith in God and her love for Jesus that was the root that gave her the ability to stand firm even in times of great shaking. Her cousin Margaret who lived in the grounds of Windsor Castle and her friend Susan Gibbs, also a distant cousin, used to visit Balmoral Castle at this time every year to spend time with the Queen. Sue is a wonderful lady of faith and was, for some time, one of our Ministry Advisers in Issachar Ministries. She often asked me if I had any particular word from the Lord for the Queen which she used to take and share with her, and they would pray together. If I did not have a particular word, I would ask my colleague David Noakes and he sometimes sent a word of encouragement to her. Our Queen was undoubtedly a Spirit-filled believer who was not afraid to speak openly of her faith.
Our prayers now should be for her son King Charles III and Prince William, that they will each have gained something from the vitality and faithfulness of their mother’s and grandmother’s faith. It may be that in her death and their personal grief they will each be aware of the presence and comfort of the Lord Jesus, and that this will be a transforming influence in their lives and the leadership that they offer to the nation.
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A reliable and ever-present head (by David Noakes)
I was taken by surprise at the intensity of loss and grief which I experienced on hearing the news of the Queen's death. It is nearly 70 years since I sat on a balcony overlooking Regent Street and saw her go past (in the pouring rain, rather like yesterday) in her Coronation procession. Since then, she has been a permanent feature of national life; and, for most of us, without even consciously realising it, of our daily lives also.
It speaks volumes for her character that she has meant so much to so many of us. She has played a vital role in holding the nation together, a figure of utter reliability to whom the nation has looked in times of crisis, comforted and strengthened simply by the fact of her presence and unwavering sense of duty. What most have probably not realised is that her ability to fulfil this unique position has been dependent on the fact that she has always known and acknowledged her total dependence on God in the role to which he called her, together with her own strength of character and determination to fulfil the vow of lifelong service which she made on her 21st birthday.
We shall never see another like our late Queen, and her loss may well prove to be the element of national shaking which brings us to cry out to God in recognition of our own sin and helplessness to save ourselves.
She has played a vital role in a nation which has nonetheless been steadily losing its Christian character. Her own stability and godliness of character made her a figurehead to whom people could look as their reliable and ever-present head, even for those who no longer knew or worshipped the Lord
Without knowing it, she was a substitute for God to most of the nation, and he used her to hold the nation together, particularly at times of crisis. For this reason, our national loss is all the greater now that he has removed her. We shall never see another like our late Queen, and her loss may well prove to be the element of national shaking which brings us to cry out to God in recognition of our own sin and helplessness to save ourselves. Let us pray that this will prove to be the case.
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The Queen that served the King (by Tom Lennie)
The life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II was a remarkable achievement, and she was known for being loyal, faithful and steadfast in her longstanding service to the nation.
I am of little doubt that these qualities – and not least her humility and servant heartedness – were largely attributable to her strong, consistent Christian faith.
Throughout her unprecedented reign, the Queen spoke frequently about her faith. In her first Christmas Address in 1952, she asked the nation to pray “that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life”.
While her faith was personal and private, she wasn’t afraid to share it. As one newspaper observed, “As Britain has become more secular, the Queen’s (Christmas) messages have followed the opposite trajectory”.
When in residence at Sandringham, her Majesty regularly joined the congregation at the local church, arriving by car, alone and unannounced.
When in residence at Sandringham, her Majesty regularly joined the congregation at the local church, arriving by car, alone and unannounced. She’d slip in through a side-door, so as not to draw attention to herself, and sit in an ordinary pew rather than the special seat assigned to her.
The Queen claimed that “the life of Jesus Christ is … an inspiration and an anchor in my life”, also stating, “Billions of people now follow Christ’s teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them”. More succinctly, she referred to Christ as “the God that I serve … I have indeed seen His faithfulness”.
Her life and faith are an inspiration to us all. Her passing is a great loss to the nation, and indeed, to the world.
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An Oath fulfilled (by Nick Szkiler)
As a thousand-strong crowd gathered near Buckingham Palace, many took photos of a double rainbow which had appeared following a heavy downpour. It also appeared over the Elizabeth Tower in Westminster and the Queen Victoria Memorial, and over Windsor Castle.
Rainbow over windsor castle, Twitter
Few will have understood the significance of the rainbow as symbolic of covenant. Our God is a covenant-keeping God. As part of her Coronation Oath in 1953, Queen Elizabeth was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury “Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?” In conclusion of her oath, Her Majesty replied, “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God”.
Queen Elizabeth was a devout Christian and made a solemn covenant as ‘Defender of the Faith’. Britain was, at the time of her accession to the throne, a God-fearing nation and, for the most part, a believing nation.
She fulfilled her sacred coronation vows to God to the last. Her life was one of duty, service and honour, and her faith in Christ upheld her through many difficult trials. The loss of our beloved Queen, who has been a constant and steady presence for all of her seventy-year reign, marks the end of an era. She was indeed our gracious Queen. She will be missed by us all.
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Our Gracious Queen (by Kathryn Price)
What a momentous week for our nation. Not only do we have a new prime minister, but a new king too.
It was quite incredible that 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth was still working two days before her death, as, clearly frail yet with beaming face, she met with both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to confirm the change of prime minister. Here she was as she has consistently appeared throughout her long reign – engaged in duty, in the most gracious manner possible.
Such exemplary duty has marked her out throughout her reign, as noted in so many of the tributes that have been pouring in from around the world. Yet her life has encompassed much more.
Such exemplary duty has marked her out throughout her reign, as noted in so many of the tributes that have been pouring in from around the world.
Liz Truss, in her own tribute to our universally loved monarch, said that she was ‘the rock upon which our modern nation was built’. I’m not sure that the Queen would have agreed with that: she would no doubt have regarded Jesus Christ as that rock – as he was to her personally through the many challenges she faced in bearing the weight of the monarchy. Indeed, the Christian faith that our nation was built on is still woven into its institutions, in ways that most of us barely realise.
The Queen’s death will be felt, not just across the UK, but throughout the Commonwealth and right across the world. Let us pray that many will come to know Jesus as their rock, just as the Queen did. And we pray that as King Charles takes the weighty mantle from his mother, he too will build his life upon the foundation of Almighty God.
