It is with profound sorrow that the members of the Diocese of Sourozh, Russian Orthodox Church in the UK and Ireland, Moscow Patriarchate have greeted the sad news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen touched the lives of millions of people in this country, in the Commonwealth, and around the world by her deep Christian faith lived out in a life of selfless service to her peoples. Among them are the people of our diocese, especially those born her subjects and those who, having made their home here, chose to become such.

For seventy years, prayers for the Queen have been offered at our services, and now we pray with the same intensity for the repose of her soul, that she would hear the words of the Lord, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, …enter into the joy of your Lord’ (Mt 25:21).

The future Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh was present at the Queen’s coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1953. Afterwards he wrote, ‘The Queen was being brought to the Altar by two Bishops. She walked towards her destiny, immersed in deep and severe thought, with the amazing simplicity and recollection which is hers. She was going forth consciously to the Altar of the Living God, to be a living sacrifice – to die to herself, in order to live with and for her people. In the words of the Russian writer Leskov, “A life was coming to an end: a ‘Vita’ was beginning”. The young Queen did not prepare her heart for a feast, but for a consecration — that is, a sacrifice. How could one not respond with one’s whole heart, one’s whole soul, and one’s whole strength, “O Lord, save the Queen: and hear us when we call upon Thee”’.

That vision was abundantly confirmed in the years that followed and so we give thanks to God for the blessing He bestowed upon us in the person of a truly gracious Queen. His Grace Bishop Matthew of Sourozh has written a letter of condolences to the King on behalf of the clergy, monastics and faithful of the diocese. May the Lord grant rest in the mansions of the righteous to His newly-departed handmaid, Queen Elizabeth, and strengthen the new King Charles as he takes up the burden of the Crown. God save the King!