Long to reign over us

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Here she is on her throne in the House of Lords, wearing the Imperial Crown and robes at the opening of the new session of Parliament.

I want to take this opportunity to celebrate life under the British Monarchy. There was a time when the British Empire extended over a quarter of the world’s population and a quarter of the Earth’s land area. It was the largest empire the world has known. All that remains are the British Overseas Territories - Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Monserrat, Pitcairn Islands, St. Helena (including Ascension, Tristan da Cunha), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekielia and Turks and Caicos Islands. Her Majesty the Queen is also head of state of sixteen independent commonwealth states. The role of the Queen is very important. As the monarch, she is the one who has to give Royal Assent to legislation passed in Parliament. She opens each session of Parliament, the Prime Minister has to ask her permission to dissolve Parliament when he wishes to call a General Election, and it is the Queen who invites an individual to form a government as the next Prime Minister. She is well-informed about what is happening in her realms, spending several hours a day reading through her ‘red boxes’, containing papers from government departments and offices. Since she has been the monarch for over fifty years, and has seen ten Prime Ministers during the course of her reign, she is in a position of considerable wisdom, and has regular meetings with her ministers, including a weekly meeting with the Prime Minister, in which she has a right to be heard, to encourage and to warn. She also has an important representative function, outwardly to other nations, and also inwardly, in her honouring of the achievements of her subjects. The monarchy is good value for the British people, costing each of us only sixty-six pence a year.

It is of course sad that there are those who in the past violently rejected British rule and now forgo this great privilege, for example, the Thirteen Colonies who declared independence on this day in 1776. I can’t help but recall in regard to this affair the words of the apostle Paul: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13.1). I also think of his injunction to ‘pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed’ (Romans 13.7), which he did not qualify with “no taxation without representation”, at least not in my Bible. I was heartened therefore to receive an e-mail this morning from an American friend whose uncle wishes he were a subject of the British Crown, is an imperialist, and thinks the American Revolution was sinful and that they ought to have been loyal subjects of King George.

God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen:

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us:

God save the Queen.

O Lord, our God, arise,

Scatter her enemies,

And make them fall.

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix,

God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,

On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign:

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause

To sing with heart and voice

God save the Queen.