God Save the Queen!

Yesterday was the Diamond Anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand Christians in these countries and throughout the Commonwealth thanked God for her sixty years of service, remembering St. Paul’s admonition to pray “for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and godly lives in all quietness and holiness.” In the Great White North, for example, Robert Bugbee, president of Lutheran Church-Canada expressed the gratitude of the church in a letter to the Queen: “We wish you to know,” he wrote, “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.”

That might strike some people as odd—especially those in the United States of America. The Queen’s role is largely ceremonial, it is often said. So for what aspect of her “reign” are we thanking God? What authority does she actually exercise?