The Queen – irrelevant?

Yesterday, Shari and I were in the same room as more dignitaries than we ever have been, or perhaps ever will be.  The long list included the Prime Minister and his wife, the leader of the opposition and his wife, the Governor General and her husband, the Premier and his wife, the Mayor and his wife, the list goes on and on. See some photos I took of the event here.  Of course, most people were there to see royalty – Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip.

There’s a lot I was thinking about saying afterwards, but watching the news changed my course a little bit.  There’s been so much reporting around the event.  The monarchists are ecstatic about the whole thing, the anti-monarchists (is that what they’re called?) were disgusted.  Most of the positive news was about what a charming and wonderful person the Queen herself is. &nbsp15,000 people of all ages gathered to see the Royal Couple, from newborns to children to teens to adults to seniors to the very elderly.  I saw them all there.

But what got me is one news reporter who I suppose was trying to make a point about how little some of Calgary’s youth cared about the Queen.  Of course, many youth were very interested and were there.  But the ones in the interview said that she was nothing more than a “curiosity”, and completely “irrelevant.”  Is she?

Now I won’t get into whether or not she should be our Queen, or any of these monarchist/anti-monarchist arguments.  However, I think people my age and younger too soon forget (or haven’t been told) about what has happened over her lifetime.  In the years before she was Queen, almost the whole world was under the control of the West.  Britain controlled much of the world – at it’s peak, the British Empire was the largest empire the world has ever known.  But in the years after World War II, even to this day, many countries and groups wanted independence.  Often this was a bloody business.  Power has shifted dramatically away from the Western World, and the world I grew up in did not even know the world the way it had been so recently.

For all the mistakes and injustices of the West including Britain, the amazing thing is that so many countries gained their independence so peacefully.  Not only that, they maintain a common bond, the Commonwealth.  No matter what you may think of the Commonwealth of Nations, it’s amazing that these countries and peoples once dominated by an empire were able to gain independence and maintain a good relationship with the United Kingdom.  It has been largely due to the tireless effort of  Queen Elizabeth that this unity in diversity has been maintained. If I’m ever in trouble in another country, and I can’t get to a Canadian embassy or consulate, I can go to a British embassy or consulate and be helped.  Like it or not, this success is incredibly relevant, and makes her much more than a curiosity.

As more and more groups around the world seek both independence or unity with larger groups, the question of how to go about it is incredibly relevant.  There’s much we could learn from the Queen, about treating individuals with respect and helping one another.  These are struggles our world faces, may we find the answers in Christ.  Here are some of the Queen’s words from her Christmas 2000 message:

For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.  I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.  I believe that the Christian message, in the words of a familiar blessing, remains profoundly important to us all: