Service for the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost - September 11, 2022

9/10/2022

A Statement from the Bishop of Fredericton,
The Most Reverend David Edwards

"Dear Friends,

As I am sure you know by now Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, died this afternoon (Thursday September 8, 2022). She has served the Commonwealth for more than 70 years during times of momentous change across the world.

On her accession to the throne in 1952, Her Majesty promised to do her duty to her life’s end, and we have seen that to be true over these many decades. Not only was the Queen faithful to her promise, but she also displayed her strong Christian faith throughout her reign.

For most of us we have not known a time when the Queen was not our monarch, so it is with sadness that we mark her death and give thanks for her life and work.

As we remember Her Majesty let us pray for our new King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla as they mourn her loss and take up new duties. We also pray for the other members of the Royal Family.

Let us pray,
Gracious God, we give thanks
for the life of your servant Queen Elizabeth,
For her faith and her dedication to duty.
Bless us as we mourn her death
And may her example continue to inspire us;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

+David Fredericton

You can also read here a reflection offered by +Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"What a life. What an extraordinary life.

And yet the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is a shock to our sense of permanence, because of her long and steadfast reign, which helped us make sense of our identity as a nation. It was a reign that was not only for the United Kingdom. It was a reign that was for the whole world. Round the world in the work I do I hear so many people who spoke of her not as anything other than The Queen. She showed us permanence. She gave us a sense that life wouldn’t change, and so with her death, we feel that permanence is rocked. And for many of us it is almost impossible to imagine a world without her.

For all those who yesterday found themselves bereaved in their own families or from their own friends, because many other people died yesterday, they will know especially that sense of great loss, the uncertainty, the loss of identity, the fading of what seemed permanent.

But that is the lie of death.

For Her Late Majesty showed us that when we build our lives on God’s faithfulness, we are on the solid ground of eternity that cannot be shaken..."

Continue Reading the Reflection from +Justin Welby