One of the highlights of Elizabeth II’s birthday celebrations this year is the service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, due to take place yesterday. While many of her subjects are non-believers or followers of other religions, her Christian faith remains central to her life

The Queen’s official ninetieth birthday celebrations this weekend are being marked by three major events – a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Trooping the Colour in Horse Guards Parade, and a picnic lunch for 10,000 guests in the Mall. The choice of events, and the order in which they come, reflect the personal priorities of a monarch whose religious faith appears to glow more brightly even as that of her subjects appears to dim.

She turns first to prayer and worship to mark both personal and national anniversaries and occasions happy or sad. It was noticeable that on 31 December 1999 she attended a vigil at Southwark Cathedral before going on to the largely secular celebration at the Millennium Dome at Greenwich. For her, the dawning of a new millennium was something to be marked foremost in a Christian context and she was visibly uneasy at the tone of the event at the Dome, with its repetitive chanting of “All you need is love” and inept performance of “Auld Lang Syne” at which Tony Blair tried to cajole his sovereign into prematurely crossing and swinging her arms.

Unlike the great majority of her subjects, the Queen is in church every Sunday morning, and she is there out of choice and conviction as much as custom or convention. It was natural for her to take her two grandsons to Crathie Parish Church near Balmoral on the morning of the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, an action that provoked some criticis