God Save the King

 

My mother was a singer. For me, as a child, singing was done by women. It was only when the male choir of the Stockholm YMCA came to Helsinki in 1957 to give a concert that I realized that men could sing at all! One of the choir members sang a solo in our church on the Sabbath morning and my eyes and ears were opened. Men could sing! The women’s voices in the congregational singing were dominant, so I had not realized that men could also sing.

For the last seventy years, children in the United Kingdom have been singing “God Save the Queen.” If they were anything like me, they probably grew up with the idea that only a woman could reign. At least, a Queen is what they saw. How could a man be a king when a queen was all they had experienced? Changing the text of the national anthem to “God Save the King” is easier than for the nation to get used to having a king after the long reign of the late Queen Elizabeth. Despite a few ups and downs, she did a marvelous job and served her people well. Charles III has already started to convince the nation that he is fit to follow in her footsteps as the new king.

The rules of succession have been modernized in all European monarchies and the next rulers in Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, and  Spain will all be women, with Norway following suit one generation later. The Dutch now have a king for the first time after three generations of queens. Monarchies hold on to lots of traditions, but they have embraced equity. They may be a relic from days gone by, but they are trying to adapt to modern society.

For many, the church as we know it is also a relic from days gone by. Religion is becoming more and more obsolete because of how people perceive the institutional church. The church is an effort created by humans to regulate how God should be worshipped. Traditions play a great role in church culture, built up during centuries of regulations made by men. Making changes is not easy and changes are not easily accepted.

It is time for the church to embrace equity, because that is how God created his human children. The man-made rules may not be what God intended. In fact, I am convinced that many of our concepts of how the church should be led are based on faulty interpretations of the Bible.

Just as my eyes as a child were opened to see that all could sing, we as a church must see that God has not restricted leadership to one gender. Women should be allowed to show that they are fit to serve in leadership as ordained pastors.

As the coronation of Charles III approaches, he has made it clear that he is ready to make the monarchy more relevant. I wish him well. God Save the King!

 

Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty

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