I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that, once upon a time, watching what was then titled: “the Queen’s Speech” was one of the regular activities that took place on Christmas Day. As I recall, my own household consisted of both royalists and those who weren’t.

I’m sure there are those, especially who broadly align with my own theological outlook and worldview, where this is NOT an activity, and if they do watch/listen it is done with a non-expectant, critical eye/ear. I confess, that I hadn’t given what has now turned into “the Kings Speech” a thought in the Christmas just gone, expecting the worst, especially in the light of the 2024 King’s Christmas message which was disappointing (see here), and would be again.

While it is tempting for some to view the British monarchy to be an irrelevance, I would argue that isn’t the case, given that for many whoever happens to be on the Throne is likely to set the tone for where we are at as a nation, as happened with our late Queen. Given our own constitution, in which the Sovereign “reigns but does not rule”, he/she can be seen as a significant part of the rich fabric of the nation, an important check and balance, with a bearing on where we are heading and, if he/she “gets it right”, where we should head.

Yesterday, I checked out the article by a righteously indignant, who once was an Anglican clergyman, who shares many of my views on where we are going and, more importantly, what we need to go as a nation. I was again reminded why, whether or not one wished it were so, the King Speech (see here for the recording) mattered (see here for his thoughts). Whilst showing himself to be a fan of the late Queen and, pertinent here, the speeches she delivered on Christmas Day, while respectful of King Charles was also critical of the content, seeing it to be a missed opportunity etc., failing to address the desperate position we are at as a nation and in effect giving a false gospel presentation with his Christmas message.

Such sentiments can be summarized at the end: “Christmas, after all, is not about inclusion. It is about incarnation. And on that note, the silence was deafening”. Like many who post on social media, most of those who responded in the comments section to his Facebook share, could be deemed as part of his echo chamber, and mostly agreed with him. Talking of echo chambers, I found another set of comments, on the post of someone with a quite different outlook and echo chamber to that of Revd. Brett’s, and in the main those commenting approved of what King Charles said.

My own comment was: “You have shown yourself to be an ardent royalist, especially in support of our late queen whose Christmas messages many saw as uplifting, including among past Christian leaders I truly respected. BUT whilst not going along with the David Icke “Queen was a reptile”, the British monarchy is part of the cult/cabal that head up the coordinated attack on humanity, school of thought, seeing the nefarious activities of 13 blood line families, including the Royal family, much behind some of the assorted, escalating global craziness we are presently witnessing, I can’t rule out that claim, albeit based on incomplete evidence. The way I see it, we must be about the business of doing the Father’s business and try not to be distracted and focus on calling on folk to repent, whilst being exemplars of His Kingdom values. We must leave King Charles and Queen Elizabeth and world leaders, past and present, with Him. Thank God for the words of Psalm 2.”

At that point, I still hadn’t listened to the speech. When I did, and after listening to it twice in order to “read between the lines” etc., I was, unsurprisingly underwhelmed, although not as righteously indignant and holy horrified as I thought I might have been. The speech gave many good examples of people doing nice things (and I’m not being over dismissive here as this is something we ought to celebrate) and that we too should be nice. As for “Christian” content, besides urging listeners to be nice and to include those who are different etc., references to the Christmas story/message seemed to be largely absent in the speech. Another, actual Anglican clergyman, Revd Dan, more moderately, and just as eloquently as Revd Brett, articulated this point well (see here).

Whatever our views on the King and his speech, he does show where we are at as a nation, highlighting some of the divisions that we are seeing – leaning on the wrong side of that division and failing to bring unity and hope to a nation that needs it, more aligned to the globalist cabal than to ordinary people. When I watched/listened to “Rupert Lowe’s brutally honest Christmas message: “Christians sidelined & insulted for Islam!”” (see here) (not done as a rebuttal, as far as I could make out), and putting aside the politics (that would not be appropriate in a King’s Speech), what he said touched on some of the areas I would have liked to have seen the King recognise, along with the Gospel message and a call for national repentance and a turning to the Christ of Christmas.