She often shared about her faith in Christ and the importance of it. Quoting from a book titled “The Servant Queen and the King she serves”, she once said: “I know just how much I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God. I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian Gospel.”

It is a remarkable achievement. Reconciliation in action. Where might the Queen have got such a vision? The Servant Queen and the King She Serves was distributed to thousands of churches across the UK in the lead up to the Queen’s official birthday celebrations in 2016. The celebrations included a massive street party attracting about 10,000 people to The Mall in London. The book was designed to be a conversation-starter and a gift from churches to their local communities. It proved so popular in Britain that the Bible Society reprinted a further 150,000 copies on top of the original 100,000.Dywedodd ‘Pwyslais mawr Crist oedd yr angen i roi nod ymarferol i ysbrydolrwydd’, gan ychwanegu: 'I mi mae dysgeidiaeth Crist a'm hatebolrwydd personol fy hun gerbron Duw yn cynnig fframwaith sy’n rhoi arweiniad i’m bywyd. Fel cynifer ohonoch, yr wyf wedi canfod cysur mawr mewn cyfnodau anodd yng ngeiriau ac esiampl Crist. The Servant Queen and the King She Serves' was published by the Bible Society, HOPE and LICC this year, to mark her 90 th birthday. In the foreword the Queen wrote:"I have been – and remain – very grateful to you for your prayers and to God for his steadfast love. I have indeed seen his faithfulness."

HOPE and CPO are working together to help churches bring communities together for special thanksgiving services and street parties on Sunday 12th June Again, we see a focus on actions, on the quality of community life, on the quality of the lived experience of every individual. Still, her vision for neighbour-love goes beyond taking the initiative to meet immediate needs. Indeed, in her 1980 Christmas message she set out a comprehensive vision for neighbour-love that embraced every sphere of society from business to education, from the armed forces to health services, from politics to the arts. We love our neighbour by offering our gifts and talents to them in selfless service. Importantly, she closed that section of the message with these words:Similarly, the Queen frequently expresses her concern for the grieving and for those ‘on the edge of society’ – the lonely, the hungry, the poor, people who ‘feel cut off and disadvantaged’, for whom ‘the world can seem a distant and hostile place’ (2007). Her compassion is clear. Again, you don’t have to be a Christian to do that, but the Queen has made it clear that her concern springs from Christian teaching ‘to love their neighbours, having compassion and concern, and being ready to undertake charity and voluntary work to ease the burden of deprivation and disadvantage’ (2009). The Queen has served us all her adult life. From 10th-12th June 2016 the country and the Commonwealth will celebrate her 90th birthday. It is a chance to say thank you. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-01-01 15:27:40 Associated-names Butcher, Catherine Boxid IA1886813 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace. To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.’

Matt Chandler and Adam Griffin cover these questions and more in Family Discipleship: Leading Your Home through Time, Moments, and Milestones. And we’re excited to offer this book to you for FREE as an eBook today. The Queen is quoting Jesus’ words from Mark 10:45: ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ Here the inclusion of ‘love’ in the sentence is telling. Her understanding of service is not limited to some dour, clenched-teeth sense of duty, but is rooted in compassion. Vitally, for her, service is not some leisure-time activity, not expressed only in volunteering to help out in a homeless shelter or take a meal to a neighbour, though she affirms all such activities. Rather, it is ‘central’. It is the fountain from which all else flows. It is the very posture of her life, and it derives from her understanding not only of Jesus’ own character but of his mission – Christ is seeking to form people who are selfless, other-oriented, servant-hearted – whatever their status, job, or role. The Queen’s vision for citizenship is shaped by two main ideas – service and neighbour-love. Both are at the heart of her own life and Christian living, but you don’t have to be a Christian to think that they’re important. Neither are necessarily distinctively Christian. But the Queen’s presentation of them is.The Bible was central to the start of Queen Elizabeth’s reign when, at her coronation, it was described as “The most valuable thing that this world affords.” Now 64 years later, the role of the Bible and her Christian faith in her reign as Queen has been detailed in a new book to commemorate her 90th birthday, The Servant Queen and the King She Serves. I ask you all to join me in praying that the hearts and minds of everyone in that troubled Province may be touched with the spirit of Christmas and the message of brotherhood, peace, and goodwill. May tolerance and understanding release the people from terror and put gladness in the place of fear. I leave with you the old message, “On earth peace; goodwill toward men”. No one has ever offered a better formula and I hope that its simple truth may yet take hold of the imagination of all mankind.’ Her Majesty met millions of people, but in all the footage we’ll watch on loop over the coming days, notice she always gave her attention to the person in front of her. She never seemed in a hurry to move past him or her. It didn’t seem to matter to her whether the person to whom she was speaking was a president or a pauper. She could have enjoyed the wealth and status her position gave her. Instead, she showed us a life of dutiful service in the interest of others, one that treats each person with dignity regardless of status. In that, she gave us a glimpse of the One who left the riches of heaven and made himself nothing, being born in the form of a servant and giving all he had to serve his people. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do. I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.'