Queen – Godinterest

September 19, 2022September 22, 2022

A Christian Queen

As the world mourns the death and celebrates the life of Queen Elizabeth II, It’s often forgotten that she has the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England. This title reflects her genuine Christian faith, which she often spoke about, and how Jesus was her inspiration who kept her going in good times and bad.

As hard as it was at times, listening to all the colonialist rhetoric, here are some inspirational quotes testifying of her love and acceptance of Christ and His word.

“For me, as a Christian, one of the most important teachings is contained in the parable of the Good Samaritan, when Jesus answers the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ It is a timeless story of a victim of a mugging who was ignored by his own countrymen but helped by a foreigner – and a despised foreigner at that. The implication drawn by Jesus is clear. Everyone is our neighbour, no matter what race, creed or colour. The need to look after a fellow human being is far more important than any cultural or religious differences.” (Christmas message, 2004)

“I know just how much I rely on my own faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God. Like others of you who draw inspiration from your own faith, I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel.” (Christmas message, 2002)

“For me, the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose birth we celebrate today, is an inspiration and an anchor in my life. A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness, he stretched out his hands in love, acceptance and healing. Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people, of whatever faith or none.” (Christmas message, 2014)

Today, this quote from Queen Elizabeth II holds so much meaning as a she says, “It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’… Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ’s unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another.” (Christmas message, 2015)

Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:7

Let’s Pray

Yahweh thank you for life and all its ups and downs. Father, please comfort those that mourn today, including the royal family. We pray for strength and comfort as they go through the burial of their mother, grandmother, and auntie. In your Word you say, “…I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone— for Kings and all those in authority— so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,…” In Christ’s Name, Amen.

September 9, 2022January 16, 2023

Passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Good morning Everyone, We have all heard the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

She served this country for 70 years and demonstrated her faith in Jesus through these years. I personally thank God for the dignity, grace and humility in which she served.

At this time, I would like to share my condolences to everyone for I recognise we are all impacted by the passing of the Queen. I would also like to encourage us all to be kind and compassionate to each other as we acknowledge and process this loss, as we reflect on the end of an era and the beginning of an unknown era.

Let us be reminded of our call to be the light and salt of the earth when there is so much uncertainty. Let us be living representatives of God’s love for all mankind.

Let’s hold on to the faith and hope that we have in Christ Jesus that He is coming again, sharing this love and hope with others so that they too will know – we serve a living Saviour.

God bless you Church of the Living God. Pastor Sophia Peart

May 8, 2019July 9, 2023

Duke and Duchess of Sussex reveal royal baby’s name is Archie

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh meet royal baby Archie, held by Meghan as Prince Harry and Meghanâ€™s mother, Doria Ragland, look on. Photograph: Chris allerton/Sussex Royal/Twitter

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have named their newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Right up until now the newest royal was referred to in the press simply as “Baby Sussex”.

Meghan recently said: “It’s magic, it’s pretty amazing, and I have the two best guys in the world, so I’m really happy,” she said during her son’s first brief encounter with a television camera.”

The name was announced shortly after the Queen met her eighth great-grandchild for the first time at Windsor Castle, where earlier the couple showed him off to the cameras and then posted pictures to social media.

“He’s already got a little bit of facial hair as well,” the bearded prince joked.

Archie’s first Instagram got 1.4MILLION likes within an hour of making his social media debut as his parents shared heart-warming family pictures taken by their personal photographer.

Both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are so incredibly grateful for the warm wishes and support they’ve received from everyone around the world, since welcoming their son two days ago.

The royal birth

Meghan gave birth to the couple’s first child at 5:26 a.m. local time on Monday. He weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces, and Harry said on the day that both mom and baby were doing well.

Will Archie have a title?

By deciding to call their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, it is thought that the Duke and Duchess have in doing so signified they will not use a title for their first born.

The baby could have become Earl of Dumbarton – one of Prince Harry’s subsidiary titles – or have been Lord Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, but instead he will simply be Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Will Archie be a Christian and attend Church?

Yes, every member of the royal family is Christened into the Church of England, which is a Protestant strain of Christianity.

The reigning monarch, who’s currently the Queen, holds the title of Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

During her 1953 Coronation, Her Majesty was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and took an oath to “maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England”.

As part of her role as the Defender of the Faith, the Queen helps the Prime Minister appoint archbishops, bishops and deans of the Church of England.

Prince Charles has previously said that, when he becomes King, he will be known as Defender of Faith – to avoid excluding all the other religions practised in Britain today.

Harry and Meghan, a timeline

8 November 2016 – Kensington Palace releases a statement that confirms Prince Harry has been dating Meghan Markle “for a few months” and asks the press to respect their privacy

28 November 2017 – Harry and Meghan announce they are engaged to be married

15 December 2017 – Kensington Palace confirms the couple have chosen to wed in Windsor on 19 May the following year

19 May 2018 – Harry and Meghan are married in front of 600 guests at St George’s Chapel and become the Duke and Duchess of Sussex

15 October 2018 – Kensington Palace announces the duchess is pregnant, and is due to give birth in Spring 2019

6 May 2019 – Meghan gives birth to a boy, who becomes seventh in line to the throne

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh meet royal baby Archie, held by Meghan as Prince Harry and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, look on. Photograph: Chris allerton/Sussex Royal/Twitter

February 22, 2019October 3, 2021

Higdon Name Meaning & Higdon Family History

Pictured is the Higdon family. This photograph was taken in the year 1898 in Britain. Who were the Black Victorians? Mainstream history has virtually erased them from our minds and history books. We have been filled with images of slavery in America and across the world, but why is it that this chapter in black history was skipped? Why isn’t it equally common knowledge that in the midst of all of that darkness there was Victorian Britain have been revealed to the public for the very first time.

Delicate, rare and striking – forgotten photographs of black Britons in the late 19th and early 20th century have been unearthed from the depths of the Hulton Archive — one of the world’s oldest and largest archives holding over 80 million images.

Black Chronicles II, a photographic exhibition at Rivington Place in East London is currently showcasing over 200 images that explore black presences in Victorian Britain, the majority of which have never been revealed to the public.

Part of “The Missing Chapter” — a three-year project devoted to researching and revealing the earliest imagery of black people in Britain — curators RenÃ©e Mussai and Mark Sealy of archive and research centre Autograph ABP have re-introduced a neglected part of history to the public consciousness.

“We have been doing this work around black representation through the prism of photography for 25 years,” says Mussa.

“What we wanted to do with this research project was to expand, if you like, the narrative back to the very early days – to the invention of photography in 1839.”

Going far back in time

The history of black people in Britain is most commonly traced back to 1948, when the “Empire Windrush” ship carried 492 Jamaican passengers to British shores, following an ad in a Jamaican newspaper promising affordable carriage on board for those seeking a new life and work in the UK.

Searching for images taken prior to this moment proved to be both exciting and overwhelming.

“We didn’t know what we would find in the archive.” Mussai exclaims.

“The Hulton Archive didn’t know what they had because they didn’t look at it with this particular remit in mind, and with 80 million records, you can imagine things get lost!”

After extensive rummaging, a wealth of hitherto unknown photographs, carte-de-visites (thin paper photograph mounted on thick paper card), cabinet cards and albumen prints resurfaced.

At one point in history, people of color were included in high society and walked the cobbled streets of Britain. The women wore intricate, voluminous gowns and wore their hair in curls and chignons. The men in suits and fair business. This may not have been the case for all black people in Britain, but for some it was.

The Victorian Era was ruled under Queen Victoria, an era that is described as an opulent culture, although there were underlying bouts of poverty and child labor. History would like you to believe that black people didn’t arrive in Britain until 1948 during “The Empire Windrush”, when many Jamaican descendants entered the country, but that is not so. There has been proof to suggest otherwise. There is documentation that proves that it wasn’t uncommon to see black faces at a Shakespeare show. We’ve been there all along, humming softly in the background.These images prove that you can’t take mainstream history at face value. Take the time to look behind the curtain and uncover OUR history. It’s as if our ancestors are just waiting for us to seek them out.

October 18, 2017October 4, 2021

Britain Is No Longer a Christian Country and Should be Systematically de-Christianized, Panel Said

London Mayor Boris Johnson has said Â£1.3tn of investment is needed over the next 35 years in order for London to retain its world class status

LONDON — Nearly two years ago, the “Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life” published a report on the role of religion in society. The paper made it clear that Britain is no longer a Christian country in any meaningful sense and should be systematically de-Christianized due to the decline of church-going and the rise of Islam and other beliefs.

Britain Is No Longer A Christian Country

The commission has attracted particular controversy because of the authority of those behind it. Patrons include Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury; Lord Woolf, the former chief justice; and Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain.

“Britain is no longer a Christian country and should stop acting as if it is, a major inquiry into the place of religion in modern society concluded in 2015, provoking a furious backlash from ministers and the Church of England.”

The report triggered a argument as it was condemned by cabinet ministers as “seriously misguided,” while the Church of England said it appeared to have been “hijacked” by humanists.

Remarkably, the overall decline of religion in Britain has coincided with the arrival of three million migrants who tend to have more religious belief than British Christians. In particular, the visual impact of Islam, most obviously expressed in the proposal for a 9,000-capacity ‘super-mosque’ in east London that was rejected by planners about 18 months ago, might give the impression that migration has brought a religious revival to Britain.

You Can’t Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater

Inevitably, the question of what is to be done about our national Christian institutions will soon arise. Is it appropriate that we are still invited to swear on the Bible in court?

Down The Inquiry Rabbit Hole

The Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life document said that faith schools are “socially divisive” and the selection of children on the basis of their beliefs should be phased out. The report claimed that the number of Church of England bishops in the Lords should be replaced with imams, rabbis and other non-other non-Christian clerics as well as evangelical pastors. The report also backde moves to cut the number of Church of England bishops in the Lords and give places to imams, rabbis and other non-other non-Christian clerics as well as evangelical pastors. It also recommended that the coronation service for the monarch ought to be overhauled to include other faiths and that thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s should include non-religious messages. And it recommended new protections for women in Sharia courts and other religious tribunals — including a call for the government to consider requiring couples who have a non-legally binding religious marriage also to have a civil registration. Most controversially, perhaps, the report also called for a rethink of anti-terror policy, including allowing students to voice radical views on campus without fear of being reported to the security services.

Some will find this sad, others as a sign of progress, but the greater majority will view it with indifference.

Educating The Public

Given all that, why do Christians in the country have so much political and educational power?

“England has an established Church. Its bishops sit in the House of Lords. The Queen is both head of state and also supreme governor of the Church of England. One of the monarch’s titles is Defender of the Faith.”

Because of this, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has told the Daily Telegraph that claims the UK was not a Christian country ignored “both historical and constitutional reality”, its not fact. The Bible features heavily in the architecture and decoration of the Houses of Parliament, paying silent tribute to its significance in English jurisprudence. Most British law is ultimately derived from the codes of law within the Bible, of which the Ten Commandments is pre-eminent.

“The Equality of All People Before The Law is Another of The Bibles Legacies.”

In short the social institutions and safeguards, as well as many of the benefits people take for granted, were supported by the understanding of human life which was found within the Bible. In this sense, the foundations of Britain’s culture and society can truly be said to be biblical.

The report is dominated by the old-fashioned view that traditional religion is declining in importance and that non-adherence to a religion is the same as humanism or secularism.

Today, as people are facing ever more clearly the perceived threats of global war, the Bible, with its vision of man’s position within creation and responsibility under God to care properly for it, still has a major contribution to make to the future of all humankind.