Keep your sermons short and sweet

THE Queen keeps a beady eye on her bishops, and likes those who are straightforward and intelligent and can make her laugh.

She very much likes the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. But when George Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury, she found him too much of a moralist and disliked the way that he criticised her children’s behaviour. Christianity, she felt, was as much about forgiveness as morality.

Going to church on Sunday has been part of her routine throughout her life, wherever she happens to be. But she doesn’t enjoy sermons, and neither does Philip — who has instructed the Dean of Windsor that sermons must be limited to no more than 12 minutes.