Thinking allowed

Thanksgiving for the longest reign

on Saturday, 1 August 2015 at 8.11 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has draf­ted two pray­ers for use to cel­eb­rate Queen Eliza­beth II becom­ing the longest-reign­ing mon­arch in Brit­ish his­tory, on 9 Septem­ber this year. These have been approved by Buck­ing­ham Palace, and the Com­mis­sion has asked that they be cir­cu­lated as widely as possible.

Pray­ers for use when HM The Queen becomes the longest reign­ing mon­arch in Brit­ish his­tory (9 Septem­ber 2015)

A Col­lect for use after the Col­lect of the Day at BCP ser­vices
Almighty God, who hast set our gra­cious sov­er­eign Queen Eliza­beth upon the throne of this realm, and giv­en her to sur­pass all oth­ers in the years of her reign: Receive our heart­felt thanks for her ser­vice to her people, con­firm and encour­age her in the con­tinu­ance of the same, and keep her in thy heav­enly wis­dom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took the form of a ser­vant for our sake, and reigneth now in glory with thee and the Holy Spir­it, one God, world without end. Amen.

A mod­ern-lan­guage pray­er draw­ing on Phil­ip­pi­ans 2
Almighty God, 
whose Son Jesus Christ exchanged the glory of a heav­enly throne for the form of a servant,
we thank you that you have giv­en Eliza­beth our Queen a heart to serve her people,
and have kept her devoted in this ser­vice bey­ond all who were before her:
encour­age us by her example to serve one anoth­er, and to seek the com­mon good,
until you call us all to reign with Christ in your etern­al king­dom. Amen.