Strict Embargo 1300 8th March 2012
Homily: The Rt Revd Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester.
Diamond Jubilee Visit of Her Majesty the Queen: 8 March 2012
Leicester Cathedral
“He looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God”
Faith has shaped the architecture and skyline of this city ever since the Romans built a
temple close to this site in the 3rd Century. Those watching this service on screens outside
may be able now to see the spires and towers of St Mary de Castro, of St Nicholas, of this
Cathedral or a dozen other churches in the city centre.
But faith has shaped the inner landscape of Leicester people too, of Guthlac the hermit, of
Robert Grossteste the scholar, of John Wycliffe the Bible translator, of William
Chillingworth the Master of Wyggeston’s Hospital. They and countless men and women
have sought to live the life of Christ and to see the Church as the place where Jesus is
visibly active in the world.
But in our Queen’s reign the cityscape has reflected the new story of Leicester – of the
world that has come here with its mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues. Our
new neighbours are proudly British and have enriched and enhanced our communities.
We have learned that to make peace we must build understanding: and to build
understanding we must make friends. We have learned that no one flourishes unless all
flourish. And the testimony to that learning is here in our Cathedral today in the presence
of young people who have read to us from the scriptures of the world’s faiths.
For Christians the inspiration for this work is the life of Jesus, the human being who offers
the world the divine gift, the gift of unrestricted love offered even at the cost of crucifixion.
Through a personal commitment to that life, the example of Elizabeth our Queen has been
woven like a golden thread through sixty years of our country’s story. Her Majesty has
given us an example essential to the Church of England as its Supreme Governor. She
has shown us that a strong and confident faith in Jesus Christ seeks not to exclude the
commitment of others but rather to be generous, to offer service and exercise a
responsibility for the good of the whole city, whose architect and builder is God.
Monarchy points beyond itself to the majesty of God – it witnesses to the eternal in the
midst of the temporal and transient, and it has done that in these six decades through Her
Majesty’s commitment to her office as a call from God.
Today in a city of many faiths we give thanks for our Queen; today we pray for her and her
family; today we celebrate Jubilee. Today with the children whose presence points us
forward to God’s future for us all, we sing the Lord’s song:
Jubilate everybody!