On Tuesday, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe of Denmark participated in a special festive worship service in Holmen’s Church. It happened on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Danish Army Priests’ Department. At the service, which The Queen attended, ‘The Signed Day’ and the ‘King of Kings’ was sung and the sermon was lead by former naval priest, Bishop Peter Skov-Jacobsen.
It was priests from the Danish Navy who lead the service at Holmen’s Church and provided the framework for the event, which took place on the occasion of the anniversary. The military clergy service is an ecclesiastical system in which priests from the various wards do service, even though they belong to the reserve and are ordinary parish priests on a daily basis.
Today, the Armed Forces Service has 65 field chaplains, 15 infantry chaplains, 15 aviation chaplains, and three chaplains for the rest of the Armed Forces, in addition to the 20 chaplains who are affiliated with the Home Guard. The military priests perform common tasks within the national church as worship services and talks, but they also perform ceremonial tasks in connection with the repatriation of the fallen soldiers in international service. The chaplain is employed in consultation with the bishop and the local provost. As a military priest, they wear a uniform during your service, with a cross as a distinction.
There are no clear rules in Denmark that say anything about what role the Danish Queen has within the Danish church. The only stipulation the Danish constitution requires is that the sitting monarch be a member of the Danish Lutheran Church. The Queen is therefore not officially the leader of the Danish Church. Still, Her Majesty has a central role in the Danish National Church today. The Danish Constitution of 1849 abolished the monarch’s power in the church and instead introduced the concept of a national church.
