The final journey for the Queen of all peoples

National Post, 19 September 2022

Elizabeth II was not an emperor like her father, and yet, at her funeral the entire world gathered

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love — I Corinthians 13.

The funeral lifted up the Christian faith and the late Queen’s “service in life, hope in death.” Above all it lifted up love. The Queen’s love for the God who loved her first, her love for her subjects and their abiding love for her in return. A love manifest in the eloquent silence of the vast crowds, the enormous throngs lining the procession route, the carpet of floral bouquets abreast the Long Walk at Windsor. And in the tears that welled up in the eyes of millions — including mine — watching around the world.

Her Late Majesty was buried as a Christian monarch and, contrary to what would have been expected in 1936 or 1952, as the world’s Queen.

“For seventy years, she was your Queen,” French President Emmanuel Macron said upon her death to his neighbours across the Channel. “For us she was the Queen.”

So she became in life, and so she was bade farewell in death, with an astonishing array of heads of state and government joining the Queen’s own prime ministers from Canada and her other realms.

The Church of England gave its Supreme Moderator the funeral of faithful Christian disciple, with the Archbishop of Canterbury — in a model of funeral preaching — noting that royal glory is for this world, but that “death is the door to glory” in eternal life.

Archbishop Justin Welby noted that the Queen had come to Westminster Abbey just shy of 75 years ago for her wedding. In 1953, he recalled, she began her coronation by praying silently at the high altar.

“Her allegiance was given to God before anyone gave allegiance to her,” he said, clarifying the right order of fealties.

“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life,” he added in praise of her “servant leadership,” adding that such an example is all the more rare in those who hold prominent and powerful offices.

So clear was the Christian identity of the funeral that the BBC commentator, remarking on the orb and sceptre upon the coffin, spoke of them as symbols of her “earthly power.” The Queen was going to her “judgment,” Welby reminded the vast congregation, and before the heavenly throne the orbs and sceptres of his world count for little.

The BBC — whose coverage I watched — was superlative, restrained and reverent, allowing the liturgy, both sacred and civic, to speak for itself. It was all complemented by astonishing camera work, a fitting tribute to a reign that began with the decision to televise the coronation.

The worldly dimension of the funeral demonstrated the great achievement of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. She was not an emperor like her father, George VI, and the remains of empire were relinquished under her reign as the last colonies became independent. And yet, at her funeral the entire world gathered, led by the Commonwealth, more than fifty countries strong.

In 1936, when King George VI acceded, it was not at all clear that in 2022 this would be the case. The abdication crisis rocked the House of Windsor because in the previous twenty years the royal houses of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Greece had fallen, as well at the Ottoman Empire. It was a legitimate fear that the same would happen in London.

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