The speech included a call for quiet and calm as “our world seems to spin ever faster”, with King Charles quoting poet TS Eliot’s words about finding the “still point of the turning world”.
A royal aide said this was a reference to the social impact of new technologies on communities, and that people might consider a “digital detox”.
For the second year, the message was delivered in a location away from a royal palace, the King using a chapel in the abbey to talk about life’s “pilgrimage” and the lessons for current times.
In front of Christmas trees originally used for the Princess of Wales’s carol concert at the Abbey, he spoke of the importance of community cohesion and bridging divides.
“As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common,” said the King, speaking under the chapel’s famous vaulted ceiling.
“With the great diversity of our communities we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.”
He praised the wartime generation’s “courage and sacrifice” and their togetherness in the face of adversity, with the broadcast showing pictures of this year’s commemorations marking 80 years since the end of World War Two in Europe and the Far East.
“These are the values which have shaped our country.
“As we hear of division, both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight,” said the King.