As people, churches and communities in the UK and around the world prepare to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, a message written by the then Archbishop of Canterbury shortly before her Coronation resounds through the decades.
In the days before the Queen's Coronation in June 1953 – more than a year after she came to the throne – Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote a special message for readers of Radio Times magazine. Remarkably, I came across a copy on sale in a charity shop near me last week.
The 52-page black-and-white publication features the BBC's many hours of TV – then still in its infancy – and radio programmes that would bring coverage of the historic royal event to viewers and listeners in Britain and globally.
It also contains a detailed order of service for the Coronation, including all the liturgy to be used in the ceremony, a map of the Coronation route, background information on the event, and a range of adverts on a royal theme – including a poem on the 'Crowning of a British Queen' from the Shell oil company.
In his message, Archbishop Fisher brings out the deeply spiritual aspects of the Coronation service, explaining, "This great ceremony creates a new relation between the Queen, her people and Almighty God. She goes out committed by every solemn act and word to be no longer her own but in everything the servant of her people.
"Her best service to her people is to maintain the laws of God and the true profession of Christ's religion among her people. She must move among them with the authority and the grace which can only come from the power of a Christian character. She must bring to everybody the dignity, the strength, and the human kindness of a disciple of Christ."
The Archbishop, who was to preside at the Westminster Abbey service, describes Queen Elizabeth as "one lovely, gracious, young figure dedicated to God's service and to ours."
Seventy years since Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, many Christians will be celebrating the strong Christian witness – in both a lifetime of service, and in her words – that the Queen has brought to her vocation.
In his message, Archbishop Fisher describes how personal the Coronation service is. He writes: "The Queen herself in her own person and by her own self-offering is being brought by the actions and prayers of the Church into a new relation to her people and to God.
"God himself is acting in and through the outward words spoken and things done, consecrating the Queen to her office and committing her people to her care."
Shortly before the Coronation, Archbishop Fisher wrote and gave to the Queen 'A Little Book of Private Devotions.' This slim volume of daily Bible readings and prayers was provided for the Queen to use in the weeks leading up to the powerful Westminster Abbey service.
Fewer than a dozen copies of the 'Devotions' book were printed, and a new commemorative booklet 'Our Faithful Queen' draws on the book to examine the Queen's faith. The focus of 'Devotions' was the deep symbolism of the Coronation service, with the Archbishop highlighting the different stages of the ceremony.
My charity shop bargain has given me an insight across the decades into the deep, spiritual importance of the Coronation, both for the Queen herself and for the people that she is committed, under God, to serve.
Readers of that historic edition of Radio Times gathered around newly-purchased television sets to watch the Coronation. Homes, pubs and community centres were packed with people, all eyes fixed on the grainy, black-and-white images from the television set. Millions more listened on the radio. The Coronation was the largest outside broadcast ever undertaken at that time.
Although the Queen is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and takes a close interest in the church, her concern goes well beyond this title. Her strong Christian faith is exemplified by her lifetime of dedicated service.
That slightly dog-eared magazine from 1953 brought home for me the major significance of the Coronation for the Queen and the people she seeks to serve - and it encouraged me to always look carefully through the shelves of my local charity shops.
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
