Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity 2022 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Dear All
Today as we gathered to celebrate the Eucharist we gave thanks for the life of our dear departed monarch, Queen Elizabeth. We offered prayers for the repose of her soul, prayers for the Royal Family and all who mourn her, for our new King and prayers for the nation.
The service concluded with the National Anthem and singing rousingly “God save our gracious King”
Notices for this week:
Tuesday 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room.
Thursday 10am Said Eucharist followed by coffee in Friendship House
2pm vestry – Garden Room
Saturday September 17th – All Saints Cakewalk – Start at Oscars Café 11.30am, Easterton Farm Park near Mugdock G62 8LG and walk to Niall and Mairi’s house, Ardbeg, Easter Carbeth, G63 9AS, the what3words reference is valley.dockers.speeches – about 5 miles, where tea will be served.
Bring your own picnic lunch. Lifts will be organised to the start point for collecting cars after the tea. All very welcome.
Readings for next Sunday – Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity – Amos 8:4-7 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16: 1-13
Today’s readings – Exodus 32:7-14. 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Luke 15: 1-10
A chapter has closed on our nation. Seven decades of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s reign has come to an end.
As a nation and beyond we mourn the passing of our much-cherished queen. Like so many of her subjects I have known no other monarch, and so alongside millions and millions of others, I feel a great sense of sadness and loss.
Throughout the past decades much of life has changed, in almost all aspects. But the Queen has always been a constant, leading and inspiring the nation both in times of crisis and in the minutia.
In 1977 Phillip Larkin was asked to write a poem for the Queens silver jubilee
“In times when nothing stood
But worsened, or grew strange,
There was one constant good:
She did not change.”
It is indeed the end of an era.
The Church times on its back page always covers an interview from a wide selection of people – each week the format is the same, the last question asked is “ If you were locked in a church who would you like to be with” answers vary from close family members to famous Christian figures like St Paul or Mother Teresa to Jesus Christ himself even! But I know who I would have chosen and that would have been the Queen. Not for any reasons of royal prestige but quite simply to have a chance to glimpse into the mind of such an extraordinary person.
The Queen was by any measure a remarkable woman. Her daily routine was like no other. Every day she studied the red box pf papers collected from the Prime Minister’s office and other key departments even on holiday.
She has been the advisor and confidante to 15 British prime ministers. Her encyclopaedic knowledge and insight into home and foreign affairs must be extraordinary. Every week she met the prime minister. No one has ever reported the content of these meetings but many of her prime ministers have stated publicly and in recent tributes how helpful they have found them and how much they appreciated her words of wisdom and political insight.
She was patron and supporter of hundreds of charities and most significantly she was Commander in Chief to the Armed Forces.
Beyond service and duty, the queen had many interests. She was devoted to her family. She was also a great horse women and lover of dogs, owning up to 30 corgis, Susan being her first corgi, given to her as a wedding present form her parents and from whom she created a great corgi dynasty!
She had, reportedly from those who knew her well, a brilliant sense of humour, a great wit and was excellent fun to be with.
It has been an emotional few days since we first heard the news. There have been many heartfelt tributes. All the tributes of spoke of the Queen’s extraordinary sense of duty and service to her country, her personal interest in all people and her constant and reassuring presence in times of joy and times of distress and difficulty.
Jesus said “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” Matt 20:28 Through her long years of service to her people I believe the Queen has been a wonderful example of this.
The Queen was a person of deep faith, which underpinned her work and her daily life. She prayed daily and attended church weekly. It was a faith that she freely shared at her Christmas broadcasts. In 2002 she said “ I know just how much I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. To put my trust in God. I drew strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel”
A gospel which she proclaimed in word and action. She and was an inspiration to us all. As the Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell said the Queen did not wear her faith on her sleeve but in her heart and there is where it should be worn.
The Queen loved Scotland, as do her family, their summer visit the highlight of their year. And so, it is fitting that it was there at Balmoral that our beloved Queen was taken on Thursday afternoon only 48 hours after inviting a new prime minister to form a government.
And so, the door closes on a long reign and the life of the most extraordinary person, a long life well lived, both in the service of her people and in the service of God but of course they are synonymous. The Queen’s faith was incarnational.
But as we are aware as one door closes, a new door opens, and it is the Christian faith that through the resurrection a new door will open. Indeed, and new door has opened!
May her soul rest in peace and rise to glory
Amen