The UK Web Archive are creating a special collection of sites relating to all aspects of the jubilee, and are inviting nominations.

Although we are still a couple of months away from the event itself, I thought it would be worth starting to pull together some of the various sites for the Queen’s jubilee that come from within or relate to the Christian churches. This will include press sources that the UKWA don’t ordinarily take. I thought I’d make a start with some of the more predictable and national ones. I would be delighted to add more if readers were to suggest them.

Official church resources

As you would expect, the several denominations have made various preliminary statements. The Church of England’s site refers to several linked ventures: the Big Jubilee Lunch, with a specially composed grace;  there will also be a special service at St Paul’s on June 5th, and also the Big Jubilee Thankyou, where Anglicans are invited to sign a copy letter displayed in churches, all of which will then be combined and presented to the Queen – a petition, as it were, without demands. The lunch is being coordinated by HOPE, a pan-church organisation which is evangelical in origin, but has partnerships in place with most of the Protestant denominations in the UK.

See also the Bishop of London’s  sermon on the accession (Feb 6) as Dean of the Chapels’ Royal.

The Catholic bishops in England and Wales have urged parishes to pray for the Queen on Sunday June 3 (which is also Trinity Sunday), as reported in the Catholic Herald. (The press release is here.)

Churches Together in England are assembling resources as they appear here, and there is a joint presidential statement from Canterbury, Westminster, the Free Churches Group, and the Lutheran church, although it is rather lost amongst references to the Olympics.

The Jubilee Churches Festival is looking to co-ordinate celebrations at a local level.

Oppositional voices

One has to dig very deep to find many Christians voicing opinions critical of either the event or the monarchy itself.  Ekklesia noted the beginnings of the campaign of protest by Republic, and complaints about the BBC’s coverage, but refrained from comment. (Incidentally, Republic’s position on the established church is also interesting.) However, one would expect this type of comment to appear more reactively, and nearer the event; and so watch this space for later posts.