“Among the many responsibilities and titles that Queen Elizabeth II carried through her seventy-year reign, she was Defender of the Faith. She had a unique role in the spiritual life of the nation. It was clear to all that she was a committed Christian, motivated and inspired by her faith in all that she did.

But at her Diamond Jubilee celebrations the Queen spoke of how the Church of England was called to create “an environment for other faith communities and indeed people of no faith to live freely. Woven into the fabric of this country,” she said, “the Church has helped to build a better society – more and more in active co-operation for the common good with those of other faiths.”

Her vision has helped shape important aspects of our purpose and ethos here at the LSE Faith Centre. Fundamentally, it is out of our deepest religious commitments – not in spite of them – that we reach out to those with whom we disagree. Interfaith dialogue and friendship don’t require us to water down or compromise our own convictions; they are built upon them. And when we come together in this way, we find that, irrespective of our ongoing differences, we are deeply enriched in our capacity to address common global challenges, such as conflict, climate change and inequality.

We have perhaps been slow to recognise this potential. Through the twentieth century, many social scientists assumed that eventually religion would disappear, just as it was assumed that an archaic institution like monarchy would disappear. But there are things human beings need that modernity does not provide – virtues, ritual, continuity in a changing world. Queen Elizabeth has embodied those things for nearly all our lifetimes, and we will miss her.

The LSE Faith Centre is grateful to His Majesty the King for the support he has already shown to our work. We pray for him in his grief and in his new responsibilities. May he continue this great work of drawing all people together across religious divides.

God save the King!”