The Queen: Christianity’s defender in a golden era of interfaith dialogue
by Tim Maby, Religion Media Centre:
The Queen’s 70-year reign has been marked by her spiritual leadership and engagement with faith groups across the spectrum of belief.
With the encouragement and support of Prince Philip, her years on the throne have been “a golden era of interfaith dialogue” and her personal commitment to the Christian faith has been clear to everyone.
In a Religion Media Centre online briefing to mark the Platinum Jubilee, journalists, authors and royal watchers assessed the centrality of faith in her reign.
Catherine Pepinster, author of Defenders of the Faith, explained how the Queen’s private faith is intertwined with her public constitutional role. Her Christmas messages revealed her personal commitment, to the extent that she could be regarded as “the defender of Christianity”.
Her public role as defender of the faith is, at its heart, sacred, explained Ian Bradley, emeritus professor at the University of St Andrews, a meaning symbolised by anointing at the coronation, an idea explored in his book God Save the Queen: The Spiritual Heart of the Monarchy .
“There’s a sense that, like a priest, the monarch is set apart, consecrated,” he said. “The Queen herself has a huge sense of this. She sees herself as having been anointed, having been called apart. It’s part of her very strong faith inculcated in her partly by her father, George VI, who had a very strong, clear, simple faith.”
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