Canadian Lutherans thank God for the Queen

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during her 2005 trip to Canada

“We wish you to know that we acknowledge your reign as an undeserved gift from God Himself, and count it a joy to name you in our public prayers on many occasions in our parishes across the country.”

So writes President Robert Bugbee of Lutheran Church–Canada in a letter congratulating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the Diamond Anniversary of her reign. On February 6, 2012 the Queen is celebrating sixty years as monarch of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

In June 2011, delegates to Lutheran Church–Canada’s ninth convention adopted a resolution calling on the church to “publicly and solemnly thank God for the servanthood of Her Majesty Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada, on her diamond anniversary,” noting that “the Canadian people, together with others in the Commonwealth and throughout the world, have benefited from her example, wisdom, and devotion to her tasks.”

The resolution also called on congregations to remember this milestone in their prayers near its February date. Earlier in January, Lutheran Church–Canada presented congregations with suggested prayers to mark the anniversary. “Almighty God, bless this day Your servant, Elizabeth, our Queen as she celebrates her diamond jubilee on the throne of this land,” begins one such prayer. “We joyfully give You our grateful thanks and praise for her long and faithful reign over us. Grant her, we pray, continued health and strength in the days and years to come, that we may continue to know Your peace under her good and gracious dominion.”

In his letter to the Queen, President Bugbee notes that we are enjoined by Scripture to pray “for kings and all those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1). But he further asserts that, “we are not only bound by duty, but are also glad and grateful to do so.” “You have borne a heavy burden of leadership for an extraordinarily long period of sixty years,” he writes, “with dignity and faithfulness.”

President Bugbee was privileged to meet the Queen during her 2010 tour of Canada at a State Dinner held in her honour. He concludes his letter to Her Majesty on behalf of Lutheran Church–Canada with the following words: “May [God] grant us the favour of counting ourselves your humble and obedient servants for many years to come.”

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Image courtesy of the Government of Canada.

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