It is with deep sadness that we mark the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II aged 96, Great Britain’s longest-ever reigning monarch.

It is an extraordinary achievement to have led our nation with such dignity and grace for 70 years.

The Queen’s devotion has been an example to us all, carrying out her duties to the very end as she appointed Liz Truss prime minister just a day before her death.

Throughout her life she has visited more than 100 countries and touched the lives of millions around the world.

The Queen was vocal about her Christian faith, which she described as “an anchor in my life”. In her 2016 Christmas broadcast to the nation she said, “Billions of people now follow Christ’s teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them, because Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love.”

She followed that in 2018 by saying, “I believe [Jesus’] message of peace on Earth and goodwill to all is never out of date. It can be heeded by everyone.”

And during the pandemic she said, “It is this simplicity of the Christmas story that makes it so universally appealing; simple happenings that formed the starting point of the life of Jesus – a man whose teachings have been handed down from generation to generation and have been the bedrock of my faith.”

Former prime minister Boris Johnson wrote: “This is our country’s saddest day. In the hearts of every one of us there is an ache at the passing of our Queen, a deep and personal sense of loss – far more intense, perhaps, than we expected.

“In these first grim moments since the news, I know that millions and millions of people have been pausing whatever they have been doing, to think about Queen Elizabeth, about the bright and shining light that has finally gone out.

“She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on.

“Wave after wave of grief is rolling across the world, from Balmoral – where our thoughts are with all the Royal family – and breaking far beyond this country and throughout that great Commonwealth of nations that she so cherished and which cherished her in return.”

And prime minister Liz Truss said, “Today the Crown passes – as it is has done for more than a thousand years – to our new monarch, our new head of state: His Majesty King Charles III.

“With the King’s family, we mourn the loss of his mother. And as we mourn, we must come together as a people to support him. To help him bear the awesome responsibility that he now carries for us all.

“And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country, – exactly as Her Majesty would have wished – by saying the words… ‘God save the King’.”

We are grateful to God for such an outstanding life. Our loss is certainly Heaven’s gain.