Pilgrim's Progress column with Philip Hobday: All change

In one of those delightfully ‘only in Britain’ moments, the incoming and outgoing prime ministers had to go in through the “luggage door” at Buckingham Palace because of repair work in the building.

Changes at the top used to be quite rare. Recently they’ve become much more common. In the first 20 years of my life, the United Kingdom had three prime ministers. In the most recent 20 years, we’ve had eight.

Now, readers of the Wakefield Express will have all sorts of views about both the individual politicians involved, their parties and their policies. There will, rightly, be different perspectives on how to address the country’s problems, what the priorities should be, and so on. There will be differences of opinion, perhaps quite sharp ones.

But whatever our views about the new prime minister, his successes and failures will affect us all. All of us, as people of goodwill who share a community (even if we don’t always share opinions!), should want there to be more successes than failures.

Here at the Cathedral, as at many churches across our country, we pray each day and week for ‘Charles our King and those in authority under him.’ This is not to endorse the monarchy as an institution (we might or might not). Nor is it to say we personally agree with what is done by any particular government which is formed in his name (we might or we might not). Rather, it is to recognise, first, that whatever we think of a particular government its decisions affect us all. And, secondly, for Christians, all power is exercised under the guidance and judgment of God, who is called ‘lord’ and ‘king’ because God is far greater than all human rulers and institutions.

Philip Hobday, Wakefield Cathedral