Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at Queen’s 90th birthday thanksgiving service

Jun 10, 2016 by Andrew Symes

From the Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

You knit me together in my mother’s womb… I thank you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made [Psalm.139:12]

Ninety years ago, Her Majesty The Queen was born, like every human being knit together in her mother’s womb, and today we thank God for the way in which she, like every human being, is fearfully and wonderfully made.

Before we ever come to light, God marks our journeys. No one at The Queen’s birth knew for what she was destined. Today we recognise that God knew.

You encompass me behind and before and lay your hand upon me [Ps.139: 4]

Sixty-three years ago at the Coronation, again in the words of the Psalmist, God uniquely laid his hand upon Her Majesty, anointing her as our Head of State, our Monarch.

We are here today to worship the God who made our Queen, and to celebrate the way in which God’s hand has been so uniquely evident in her life.

Psalm 139 explores fear and wonder, and the connection between them.

In life there is much to fear. Over and again the Psalm describes those things we might be afraid of – the fears we harbour individually as well as the fears we share corporately. Fear makes us want to flee – from God, from one another, often even from ourselves. But over and again that fear is turned into wonder as we see that God is before, behind and beyond it.

Over the 63 years and the 90 years there has been much to fear: at times of personal challenge or national crisis. But just as the psalmist sees through fear to something more stirring and more extraordinary, so we look back on Your Majesty’s 90 years in the life of our nation with deep wonder and profound gratitude. Through war and hardship, through turmoil and change, we have been fearfully and wonderfully sustained.

Read here