Queen's Jubilee celebrations
Celebrating 70 years of servant leadership
Matthew Street - Rector
Along with the rest of the country the St J’s Group took an opportunity at each of its Sunday services on June 6th 2022 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s reign.
In my address that day I focussed on servant leadership. Jesus reminded his disciples at the Last Supper ‘I am among you as one who serves.’ (Luke 22:27).
In 1947, on her 21st Birthday and five years before she ascended to the throne, Princess Elizabeth gave a radio broadcast and in that broadcast she made an astounding statement that would define her whole life and reign: ‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service’. The servant Queen was born.
Her 70 years on the throne can rightly be described as 70 years of service. She made 263 official visits to 116 countries. She clocked up over a million miles of travel. On June 6th 2022 she was on her 14th Prime Minister, 14th President and 7th Pope and at the age of 96 she was still serving her subjects faithfully.
Like Jesus Queen Elizabeth modelled a different kind of leadership, a servant leadership. Servant leadership has at its heart a ‘do as I do’ attitude. It works on the premise that I am your servant and ‘how can I serve you’. It is a leadership model that is not focussed on me but on you. This model of leadership is alien to most of us. It is a hard path to go down, but for those that do, great rewards await.