Throughout our late Queen’s funeral service, the many memorial services and other events to mark her passing, much emphasis was put upon her lifelong commitment to service of our country and God in all that she did. She has been rightly honoured for keeping that vow, which she famously made public on her 21st birthday. In many ways the idea that our lives are for giving to others rather than seeking self-fulfilment is somewhat countercultural in our deeply individualistic age. But our late Queen’s inspirational example has made many people think again about the idea of our vocation to serve God and others first and foremost. Our new King, Charles III, has himself reiterated the understanding of his life and role as service.
This has all been happening in the midst of a world which faces many immense challenges, including the continuing conflict in Ukraine, the substantial cost of living crisis, ongoing concerns about the environment, and many people feeling deeply anxious and fearful about what lies ahead, including the future of the Christian faith and our churches. In this context, it really does matter where our deep faith and trust lie, and how we think we should live our lives. Some words of our late Queen, spoken first during her Christmas message of 2002, illustrate her own approach of deep faith and trust in God. She said, “Each day is a new beginning. I know the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God”. These words make explicit her Christian understanding of life as living in right relationship of love and service to God and others.
My own journey of life and vocation is about to undergo a major shift as I finish this month after 20 years as Bishop of Kingston. Formally speaking, it was The Queen, as Head of the Church of England, who instructed my consecration as Bishop of Kingston, and whose consent I needed to gain before finishing this ministry. This has been for me a wonderful and rewarding context in which I have been privileged to serve so many excellent parishes, chaplaincies and communities across the Kingston Episcopal Area and the Diocese of Southwark. I have also been privileged to serve in some of the wider ministries of a Bishop and especially in the areas of the environment, interfaith, education, ministry in the Holy Land (especially at St George’s College, Jerusalem) and the science/religion interface. I am deeply grateful to those alongside whom I have been privileged to serve during this time. I now look forward, by God’s grace, to the next stage of life and vocation, which will be very different, but will also include the continuation of my ministry with Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science www.eclasproject.org and as a member of the newly formed Anglican Communion Science Commission.
My successor will be moving into an exciting and developing context for proclaiming the Gospel afresh in this generation. The latent spirituality in our country, which in some ways became clearer during all the events surrounding The Queen’s passing, suggests that many people search for a deeper understanding of God and how we should live. If as a Diocese we continue genuinely to live and express all the five Anglican marks of mission in what we say and do, then I believe we will truly be able to connect more deeply with the contexts and communities we serve with the good news of God’s saving love in Christ, made known in word and deed. As I move to the next stage of my life and vocation, my thoughts and prayers will be with all in the Diocese of Southwark as you continue to serve God in this place.
