Maybe We Americans Sometimes Need to Pray for the Queen

I was watching this, a recitation of the traditional Morning Prayer service by Len Finn at St. George’s Anglican Church in Burlington, Ontario.

It’s “traditional” because it’s from the Canadian 1962 BCP, their “final true Anglican prayer book” before they went off the deep end like their counterparts south of the border.  (Technically it’s still their official prayer book, but as the UK they have workarounds.)  I’ve not given much attention to this, but I should have: Finn does a nice job on a nice liturgy.  There are certain variations (like the Venite, which the 2019 BCP fixed) but overall it’s closer to what I was raised with than that dreadful 1979 BCP that’s used in places like this.

One thing, however, that is different is this:

Then the Priest standing up shall say:
O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;
People. And grant us thy salvation.
Priest. O Lord, save the Queen;
People. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

And there are other prayers of this kind.

When the “Protestant Episcopal Church” was founded, we were celebrating our independence from King George III, and so we changed it to this, as noted in the 1928 BCP:

O Lord, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty Ruler of the universe, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth; Most heartily we beseech thee, with thy favour to behold and bless thy servant THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and all others in authority; and so replenish them with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that they may always incline to thy will, and walk in thy way.

While such prayers are especially important these days, we shouldn’t entirely forget the Queen, who has been head of state through Brexit (which many of us supported) and COVID-19.  We’ve also sent over Megan Markle (complete with Michael Curry sermon) with disastrous results.  So perhaps some prayers from these shores would be appropriate.

At the start of Morning Prayer is the General Confession, complete with the “miserable offenders.”  Maybe while reciting that some penance would be in order…