A response from the Bishop of Selby to the death of Her Majesty the Queen

September 8th 2022

It is with sorrow that I join with you in mourning the death of Her Majesty the Queen at the

age of 96, our longest reigning monarch. Over the past 70 years the Queen has been an anchor

for our country, embodying our story and being the face of the United Kingdom. She not only

served us faithfully throughout this time but has also been Head of the Commonwealth and I

know, from growing up in Uganda, something of how much she was held in affection and

respect across its 54 nations and 1.2 billion people who represent one third of the global

population. In Selby many still recall her visit in 1969 with the late Duke of Edinburgh to Selby

Abbey for the Royal Maundy Service, a rare privilege for a parish church and the town.

Bearing the title of Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England,

she has been a public Christian, increasingly sharing what this faith meant to her in her annual

Christmas Broadcast to the nations. She was the most accessible, though inscrutable, of our

monarchs yet her passion for her corgis and horses was very public and something of her

playfulness broke through in the Paddington Bear sketch to mark her Platinum Jubilee. A

particular family memory I have is when she visited our school in Edinburgh and spoke with

my brother about the stool he was making in the woodwork class.

So we pray for the new King Charles and the Royal Family in their grief but we do so confident

in the Easter hope of resurrection in which she put her trust. May our Servant Queen rest in

peace and rise in glory.

+John Selby

The Rt Revd Dr John Thomson

Bishop of