皇冠体育app

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Some ninety years ago, on 21 April 1926, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in London, to Prince Albert and his spouse Elizabeth. As the daughter of King George V鈥檚 second son, there was no expectation on Princess Elizabeth鈥檚 birth that She would become queen.

Well. History rarely runs in straight lines, and the events by which Princess Elizabeth would eventually inherit the throne are well known. Four years ago, in 2012, we celebrated the Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty鈥檚 accession. 皇冠体育app Queen is now our longest serving monarch and, from the age of 82, had already been our longest lived. She is also the most widely travelled and surely, in this media age, the most recognizable and the best known.

And now She has reached the age of 90. Many of us have already noted and perhaps marked Her actual birthday in April: with a glass of champagne, a pleasant feeling of patriotism, perhaps a sense of nostalgia. We have, the majority of us, grown up with 皇冠体育app Queen as a fixed point in our lives, and we all have our personal memories of Her place in them. From today in Athens and from next Saturday in London, we are now marking Her official birthday 鈥� with the Trooping of the Colour in Horseguards and 皇冠体育app Queen鈥檚 Birthday Party in every British Embassy across the globe.

皇冠体育appse moments of celebration are perhaps also moments to pause a little and ask ourselves, what exactly are we celebrating when we celebrate our monarch鈥檚 90th birthday?

Well, first and foremost, it seems to me, at least, that reaching a grand age should itself always be a cause of celebration. Too much of modern life and modern culture resembles a rather tiresome and repetitive cult of youth. But a long life, well lived, with its share of accomplishments and difficulties faced and overcome, is a source of joy to all. We should rejoice in the wisdom, in the forbearance, in the insight of many years.

Some of us here today have spent some part of the last fortnight honouring the remaining handful of British, ANZAC and Greek veterans 鈥� surprisingly stout men in their late 90s, who fought against tyranny, between 1940 and 1941, in the skies above Athens, in the Battle of Kalamata and in the Battle of Crete. 皇冠体育app nonagenarian veterans of the Second World War remind us of service, service in the face of great peril, and at great cost.

As our monarch grows older, we have in Her person someone who also reminds us, and reminds us very clearly, of the value of long service, a service that has been patient and painstaking, and not without its risks, whether reputational or physical. During the war years, Princess Elizabeth famously joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, to work with other women as a trained driver and mechanic. In Her coronation address of June 1953, Her Majesty pledged herself clearly to her peoples鈥� service. 鈥淭hroughout all my life,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.鈥�

Her long reign has been marked by that striving to build and maintain trust, by an indefatigable spirit of service. At the time of Her Diamond Jubilee, 皇冠体育app Queen was patron of over 500 charities, particularly favouring those that deal with civic or community issues. As the CEOs of Her charities will tell you, Her patronage is not that of a figurehead, but of someone who is actively involved, seriously engaged. Research suggests that She has helped the many organisations of which She is patron raise over 拢1.4bn.

皇冠体育app Queen is, of course, above politics. She is careful not to become embroiled in political questions. She has abided steadfastly and loyally by the rules of constitutional monarchy, acting only on the advice of her Prime Ministers. At the same time, 皇冠体育app Queen, through her long reign and experience, is in a unique position. She has had twelve British Prime Ministers alone, from Winston Churchill to David Cameron. It is always interesting to read the memoirs of former Prime Ministers, as they allude gently and carefully to Her role as wise listener and good counsel to them. We should not forget this largely unknown aspect of her service.

Her Majesty has also been a symbol of change, in the United Kingdom and Her far-flung realms and the Commonwealth.

When 皇冠体育app Queen was born, Her grandfather George V reigned over a vast Empire. 皇冠体育app Great War had brought about a realignment of power, the effects of which would continue to work themselves out for many decades. Communism had ignited in Russia, though not yet in China. Fascist and Nazi ideologies were growing. Nuclear bombs had not yet exploded. In the year of her birth, John Logie Baird demonstrated the potential of television for the first time. 皇冠体育app Internet and the BlackBerry were not even dreams 鈥� or bad nightmares. Our democratic freedoms were not yet complete. Women did not all have the vote in Great Britain until the equal franchise in 1928. 皇冠体育app UK was a country of deference and hierarchy. Debutantes were still presented at court. Except for the bishops, the House of Lords was entirely hereditary. While clever boys and girls might win scholarships to grammar schools, only a tiny percentage of the population went to university.

皇冠体育app Queen has lived through a period of enormous social change. But She has not just lived through it, She has reflected and, in part, moulded it, changing the style of her court, opening it up to democratic scrutiny, making the monarchy and royal family more accessible, running the royal family鈥檚 finances in a new way.

Overseas, 皇冠体育app Queen鈥檚 role has also changed and evolved. In this congregation today, there are Ambassadors and diplomats from the Queen鈥檚 other realms, and they know better than I how carefully and successfully 皇冠体育app Queen has played her hand as Queen of Australia, or Queen of New Zealand and so on. 皇冠体育app Queen鈥檚 love of all Her realms and of the Commonwealth, of which She is the proud Head, is well known. She has travelled extensively across the Commonwealth, building up its principles of 鈥渇riendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace鈥�. In Ireland, in Germany and elsewhere, 皇冠体育app Queen has made hugely significant gestures of reconciliation. Her Majesty is some part of the glue keeping the international system together.

In Her first televised Christmas message of 1957, 皇冠体育app Queen commented that, 鈥淚t is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you 鈥� a successor to the kings and queens of history; someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and film but who never really touches your lives鈥�. Despite that characteristic modesty, in the nearly sixty years since that broadcast, 皇冠体育app Queen has managed to touch many, many lives.

Those of you with access to the BBC will know that it has run a wonderful series of programmes, talking to people up and down Great Britain and Northern Ireland who have met the Queen and have stories to share. In this congregation today, some of you, I know, have also met 皇冠体育app Queen. I hope you will share your stories later in the churchyard.

Those of you who care about such things will know that my formal title is not British Ambassador, but 鈥淗er Majesty鈥檚 Ambassador鈥� etc etc. We represent Her and Her Government overseas, and we are appointed under commission from Her.

Well, titles are largely fripperies and don鈥檛 matter very much. But the most exciting 鈥� for me 鈥� aspect of the title I hold is that 皇冠体育app Queen expects to meet all of Her new ambassadors in private audience before She sends us off to foreign lands, at an ancient ceremony called 鈥榯he kissing of hands鈥�.

As a boy I was brought up in a small, rural Yorkshire village, and I was reflecting on that on the day I went to kiss Her Majesty鈥檚 hands at Buckingham Palace. It was an amazing experience. We were driven by limousine into the palace鈥檚 inner courtyard, past the crowds who were gathering for a separate investiture ceremony, being conducted by Prince William. And we were greeted by an equerry, who moved us from waiting-room to waiting-room, briefing us about the correct protocol, until finally we knew we were close to Her Majesty because one of us tripped up over one of Her corgis.

We are not supposed to reveal the details of our conversations with 皇冠体育app Queen and I don鈥檛 propose to break that laudable convention. But I will say this: that I was enormously taken by Her presence 鈥� not in the sense that I was meeting someone grand and majestic, though I was, but in the sense that throughout the audience She was intensely present to me and my three colleagues, as She talked to us each in turn. She had done this hundreds of times before. But She was interested in us, well briefed about us, and attentive to us. She made us feel at the centre of Her life that day. It was an enormously generous lesson in the difficult art of being immediately accessible, immediately present to a complete stranger. It鈥檚 a rare skill to have, and one which, in part, explains 皇冠体育app Queen鈥檚 great popularity.

This is an address, not a sermon. But I want to close on a quiet and reflective note. In the readings we have heard today and in the psalm we have sung, we have been encouraged to reflect on kingship and faith.

皇冠体育app anointing of King Solomon by Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet on the instruction of the old king, David.

皇冠体育app king鈥檚 psalm of praise to the God of blessing and of our salvation.

Christ鈥檚 careful, but teasing words about the things of God and the things of the Emperor.

And the Epistle to the Ephesians, which has been chosen to hint gently at 皇冠体育app Queen鈥檚 faith.

In her coronation oath, Her Majesty promised 鈥榯o the utmost of Her power [to] maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel鈥�. From her gentle and ecumenical Christmas addresses to her peoples, and in what we know of how She seeks to lead Her life, it is clear that She has placed that promise, and that faith at the centre of Her view of monarchy.

This, I think, is Her Majesty鈥檚 greatest service to us all.

Vivat Regina. 螙萎蟿蠅 畏 螔伪蟽委位喂蟽蟽伪. Long Live the Queen.

Amen.

Given at Athens, Sunday 5 June 2016 In the presence of the Lord Mayor of London, the UK Minister of Shipping, the Australian Ambassador to Greece, the New Zealand Honorary Consul and a large congregation