THE QUEEN REMEMBERED
The Queen
remembered The Herald pays tribute to the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II. Herald marked historic moments As expected, the historic occasions of the death of King George VI and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II were featured in the Presbyterian Herald. The March 1952 edition reported that the sorrow of the Church was expressed in two messages sent by PCI Moderator Dr Hugh McIlroy, one of which expressed sincere sympathy on the circumstances of the Queen’s accession to the throne. “We pray that Your Majesty, walking in your reverend father’s footsteps, may be richly blessed in your reign…” The Queen’s coronation was marked in the July 1953 issue, with the editorial saying many are expressing the “wistful hope that we might be on the verge of another Elizabethan age…”
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Herald October 2022
The same issue featured the poem, ‘A prayer for Coronation Day’, which said, “Today our youthful Queen is set apart… And as with joy we crown her in our heart/ In love divine let her be crowned by Thee…” In the June edition of 2002, the Herald reported that Dr Alastair Dunlop had the privilege of preaching in the presence of the Queen during a service to celebrate her Golden Jubilee in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. At the service, Dr Dunlop, who was PCI Moderator at the time, said that in a society which had changed enormously in 50 years, the Queen had displayed “an unwavering, consistent devotion to duty, unstinting service to the nation and the Commonwealth, and utter faithfulness to vows made at her coronation. “We are particularly grateful today, in this context of worship, for her example of steady, Christian faith,” he added.