Queen Elizabeth “grateful for God’s steadfast love”

Queen Elizabeth will celebrate her 90^th birthday on 21 April with a clear statement of faith.

“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”, she says in the foreword of a book on her Christian faith.

The Servant Queen and the King She Serves offers “rare insights into the Queen’s personal thoughts and Christian faith.”

In her comments, the Queen refers to the changes she has seen in her life, which has made her the longest-reigning monarch in British history. “The extent and pace of change has been truly remarkable”, she writes. “We have witnessed triumphs and tragedies.”

Elizabeth also alludes to the current conflicts in the Middle East saying that the world is now experiencing “terrible suffering on an unprecedented scale.”

QUEEN HAS “CLEAR DEPENDANCE ON CHRIST”

Queen Elizabeth. / Wilkimedia

The book has been published by three Christian organisations: the Bible Society, HOPE and the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC).

Co-author Mark Greene (LICC), said: “As I've been writing this book and talking about it to friends, to family who don't know Jesus, to my Jewish barber, I’ve been struck how very interested they are to discover more about the Queen's faith.”

“The Queen has served us all her adult life, with amazing consistency of character, concern for others and a clear dependence on Christ. The more I've read what she's written and talked to people who know her, the clearer that is”, he added.

“A TALKING POINT IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD”

The interim chief executive of the Bible Society, Paul Woolley, said: “This book bears witness to the Queen’s faith and the centrality of her Christian faith on her life and her reign. It goes into detail about her speeches and it often is drawing on her own words to give an account of how significant the Christian faith is to all that she represents.”

He added that the three agencies wanted to make the book widely available so that it would “become a talking point in your neighbourhood and in your office.” They hope that Christians and churches will buy copies of the book to give away as an evangelistic tool.