Andy Hawes    Faith & Duty   It has been noted by many commentators that Queen Elizabeth ‘fulfilled her duties in a peerless way.’ Duty is not a term used very often in contemporary society, although it is a refrain [...]

Bradley Smith exhorts prayer of and for the Sovereign   Around 100 members of The Prayer Book Society were gathered at Liverpool Hope University for their annual conference when the news of Her Late Majesty’s death was announced. As we [...]

John Gayford considers the Riddle of the New Testament   The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has been a matter of considerable dispute over the centuries. Hebrews is anonymous, and unlike epistles it does not begin with a [...]

Simon Cotton finds Elizabethan Royal Arms in churches   Following the split from Rome, the arms of the Reigning Monarch began to be displayed in churches in England, though the first legislation to that effect was not passed until the [...]

Simon Walsh looks at the Poets Laureate of Elizabeth II   In times when nothing stood But worsened or grew strange There was one constant good She did not change. These lines were composed by Philip Larkin in 1978 to [...]

Music flourished in the nation during the late Queen’s reign, finds Ronald Corp   During the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, music of all types has flourished and her patronage of ‘serious’ (or ‘classical’) music has been exemplary. She appointed [...]

Owen Higgs reviews the Royal Collection from postage stamps to Old Masters   ‘Royal Heritage: The story of Britain’s Royal Builders and Collectors’ was one of the highlights of Her Late Majesty’s 1977 Silver Jubilee. In 13 one-hour programmes it [...]

Floral Tribute   Simon Armitage   Evening will come, however determined the late afternoon, Limes and oaks in their last green flush, pearled in September mist. I have conjured a lily to light these hours, a token of thanks, Zones [...]

A Pilgrimage of Paradoxes A Backpacker’s Encounters with God and Nature Mark Clavier  T & T Clark, 2022 ISBN 9780567703569   The York 2022 meeting of the General Synod had its usual varied programme ranging from care of the environment [...]

Festus   Her late Majesty’s demise raised the age-old problem in the Church of England about prayers for the dead. As a result, the official guidance was characteristically Anglican and unclear. A number of cathedrals with their liturgical banner aloft [...]