A Note from Revd. Andrew:
Personally speaking…
On 2nd June 2022 we celebrate a unique milestone in our history, Her Majesty the Queen’s 70th year as our Monarch and Head of the Commonwealth, her Platinum Jubilee, something no previous monarch has achieved.
Over the years I’ve enjoyed events where we’ve celebrated our Diversity. I’ve liked seeing all the different people, their flags, cultural dress, and tasty foods. But I’ve wondered, if we always celebrate our diversity, when do we get to celebrate our unity? And if we keep celebrating our diversity, and only our diversity, beautiful though that is, what is there to bring us together that unites us, and stops us just being fragmented?
Our family tradition at Christmas is to sit down and watch the Queen’s Christmas Message at three o’clock in the afternoon. And I admire the beautiful spirit of this noble lady as I see her give words of encouragement and hope to our nation and the Commonwealth. As I watch, it’s clear to me, and she openly states it herself, that her
hope and good wishes spring from her Christian faith, a faith which has inspired her ‘life lived with grace’ under God. Our family unites as we listen to our Queen speaking.
As I reflect on the last couple of years, I’m proud that our country is the ‘mother of parliamentary democracy’ - a system of government emulated around the world. We did away with tyrannical Kings and Queens with Magna Carta and established the principle that no King or Queen or government may stand above the law:
“NO FREE MAN SHALL BE SEIZED, IMPRISONED, DISPOSSESSED, OUTLAWED, EXILED OR RUINED IN ANY WAY, NOR IN ANY WAY PROCEEDED AGAINST, EXCEPT BY THE LAWFUL JUDGEMENT OF HIS PEERS AND THE LAW OF THE LAND.”
This clause is still in force today. So, we have a unique system of Common Law, (Case Law) as well as government statutes, and no Constitution.
Our forefathers and mothers fought for us at great cost, to win these freedoms and conventions and pass them down to us to enjoy. We owe it to honour their memory and preserve them. As we look back over the last two years, maybe the threat we face today is not the tyranny of Kings and Queens, but of government overreach and globalism, which have certainly, in the word used by Magna Carta, resulted in ‘ruin’. Jesus himself said:
“YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS… EVERY GOOD TREE BEARS GOOD FRUIT, BUT A BAD TREE BEARS BAD FRUIT.” ~ MATTHEW 7:16 & 18
Interestingly, I’d like to argue it is uniquely the Christian worldview which makes possible our freedoms under royalty and government. This is because if our freedoms are just given to us by humans in the form of a ‘charter of rights’ or a constitution for example, then just as easily humans can simply rewrite them away. As our humble Queen acknowledges, even Kings, Queens and Governments are ultimately accountable to God, and will one day be judged by Jesus -
“RULER OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH” ~ REVELATION 1:4-5
So, let’s unite, celebrate Her Majesty’s Jubilee, and have a wonderful time! Join me in praying:
