Queen Margrethe of Denmark astonished the world when she abdicated after almost 52 years on the throne.
Margrethe attends church services regularly, but the Christian faith only began to have meaning for her when she became Queen. ‘I felt very, very strongly that I was not alone, and then it grew,’ she has said.
But Christians are worried the new King, Frederik X, seems less interested in Christianity than his mother. In 2017, he said he ‘finds it hard to believe that a man with a big beard would be sitting on the clouds’. And his apparent multi-faith agenda is another concern. Tobias Haslund-Thomsen, is an evangelist and pastor with European Missionary Fellowship at Haven Church, Aarhus – Denmark’s second-largest city. He said: ‘When Frederik gave his coronation speech he also introduced his royal motto, which is “United, committed, for the Kingdom of Denmark”. He referred to higher powers but failed to mention God. He announced that he will be “a King of tomorrow” while he was wearing a Buddhist Shamballa bracelet’.
