By happy chance I was back in the UK for the death and funeral of her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. It was a moving and quietly emotional time. Since coming back to France I have had so many conversations with people here who followed those days intently. Indeed one of the parishioners here actually got an early ferry and travelled to London on the day of the funeral: a young woman in her 20’s! My own experience and the words of many French people lead me to question the remark on “The News Quiz” several days after the funeral: “The country has returned to reality after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.” Where, I ask, lies the reality about the UK: is it in what we heard and saw in the days after the Queen’s death – or was this just a blip, a suspension of life as it really is, the reality as presented by the TV and the media day by day.

Day after day we saw thousands of ordinary people queuing to walk quietly past the coffin at the Lying in State at Westminster Hall. In many interviews British people spoke with affection and respect of someone who had done her duty throughout her life. But it was more than duty. There was an understanding that the Queen had lived all her life as a public figure; that she had accepted her role without complaining; that she had tried to adapt and change and cope with the crises of life which came frequently in her long reign. Time and again one heard people speak of her as one who had upheld stability and tradition during a period of phenomenal change – one who had enabled the nation to change without some sort of national breakdown – or revolutiion.

I am not sure that the media ‘get’ this. Novelty has become their stock in trade. They present us with the latest fashion, the latest news – they tell us what we should be concerned about. Generally speaking, they have decided that “religion” in general and the Christian Faith in particular is to be ignored as irrelevant to the “modern age”. They were not at ease, I felt, with the frequent statements about the Queen’s personal and deeply held Christian Faith.

A huge crowd gathered in St Paul’s Cathedral. A handful were “the great and the good” but the vast majority of the 2,000 who entered that great building were ordinary people like you and me. The liturgy was deeply traditional (I wondered whether it was really necessary for the Cathedral clergy to do everything!) and the music magnificent – not a ‘worship song’ in sight; As far as I could see, no-one seemed bored or unengaged.

Now I wonder if this doesn’t give us a pause for reflection. For well on thirty years we have lived with the idea that traditional worship just puts people off. This idea is particularly established among evangelical Anglicans who are now the dominant voice in the Church of England. ‘Robes’ are boring and ’embarrassing’, any music written before yesterday ‘puts young people off’ and formal liturgy is ‘insincere’. Nor are Catholics exempt from this attitude. Ill-prepared Masses, trivial preaching and pathetic music are too much in evidence – nor is the answer to be found in polyester latin chasubles and the biretta!

Was there any embarrassment or awkwardness at the elaborate (one might even say antique) uniforms seen at every stage of the funeral? Not at all. And one imagines that those soldiers would have been back in their ordinary camos the next day without anyone thinking it odd. So what are we going to do ? Are we going to preserve the Cathedrals – Westminster Cathedral among them – so that we can roll out ‘traditional services’ for very special occasions ? Surely not, for that would create an impossible divide between the local communities and parishes which serve them, and the Cathedrals. Maybe we need to admit that we have just got it wrong. We have listened to the voices of media, the self-appointed opinion formers, the liberal élite – call them what you will – and we have believed them. ‘Success’ has replaced ‘faithfulness’ on the Christian agenda, and it looks from our recent experience that the people of our nation have shown their respect for tradition and those who uphold it.