King Charles III has delivered his Christmas Day address from Westminster Abbey.<\/p>\n
In a pre-recorded video, the British monarch reflected on the theme of pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
The 77-year-old said while the use of the word was less often used today, it had “particular significance for our modern world \u2013 and especially at Christmas”.<\/p>\n
“It is about journeying forward into the future while also journeying back to remember the past and learn from its lessons.”<\/p>\n
Charles spoke of the end of World War II, adding that while it was remembered by fewer people in the ensuring decades, the “courage and sacrifice” of the servicemen and women, and the communities which came together “in the face of such great challenge carry a timeless message for us all”. <\/p>\n
“These are the values which have shaped our country and the Commonwealth as we hear of division, both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight.”<\/p>\n
The monarch also spoke of the enduring theme of journeying, companionship, and the kindness of others in the story of Christmas. <\/p>\n
“Through physical and mental challenge, they found an inner strength. To this day in times of uncertainty, these ways of living are treasured by all the great faiths and provide us with deep wells of hope, of resilience in the face of adversity, peace through forgiveness, simply getting to know our neighbours and by showing respect to one another, creating new friendships. <\/p>\n
“Indeed, as our world seems to spin ever faster, our journey may pause to quieten our minds \u2013 in T S Eliot’s words, at the ‘still point of the turning world’ \u2013 and allow ourselves to renew. In this with the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.”<\/p>\n
Charles highlighted the importance of cherishing the “values of compassion and reconciliation the way our Lord lived and died” \u2013 of which he had heard many such examples.<\/p>\n
“These stories of the triumph of courage over adversity give me hope, from our venerable military veterans to selfless humanitarian workers in this century’s most dangerous conflict zones, to the ways in which individuals and communities display spontaneous bravery, instinctively placing themselves in harm’s way to defend others.<\/p>\n
“As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common \u2013 a shared longing for peace and a deep respect for all life. <\/p>\n
“If we could find time in our journey through life to think on these virtues, we can all make the future more hopeful.”<\/p>\n
But the “greatest pilgrim of all”, he said, was the story of “the one who came down to Earth from Heaven, whose shelter was a stable, and who shared his life with the poor and lowly”. <\/p>\n
“It was a pilgrimage with a purpose heralded by angels that there should be peace on Earth, that prayer for peace and reconciliation, for doing to others as we would have them do to us, which rang out over the fields near Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago, still reverberates from there and around the world today. <\/p>\n
“It is a prayer for our times and our communities too, as we journey through our lives. So, with these words and my whole heart, I wish you all a most peaceful and very happy Christmas.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles III has delivered his Christmas Day address from Westminster Abbey. In a pre-recorded video, the British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,6747,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-201022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-royalty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}