Our core values endure with King Charles

Charles III delivered his first Christmas speech from St George’s Chapel at Windsor, a place of profound emotional resonance. This was where Elizabeth II sat alone during the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh; it was where the late Queen was herself laid to rest only a few months ago.

Our new King began by paying tribute to “my beloved mother” and acknowledging the nation’s grief, adding that Christmas is a “poignant time” for those who have lost loved ones. “We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.”

His Majesty has a deep appreciation of the importance of tradition – the military, the arts, constitution and Church – and for its ability to provide ballast in times of trouble. Just knowing such things are there is a comfort.

Religion is a case in point. The census recently revealed that Christianity is now a minority religion in England and Wales, but we remain a culturally and constitutionally Christian country – and faith provides a language to articulate our fears and ideals, especially at Christmas when, say believers, hope is made flesh through birth.

His Majesty recalled that he once fulfilled a personal ambition to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and see the spot where tradition says Jesus was born – the earthly point where “light came into the world”.

His mother’s belief in that light, he said, expressed how she saw God, and also other people and their ability, through charity and kindness, to improve the lives of others and “shine a light in the world around them”.

We see this active compassion in aid workers, in caregivers, the emergency services, Armed Forces and in temples of all faiths “united in feeding the hungry … Such heartfelt solidarity,” said His Majesty, “is the most inspiring expression of loving our neighbour as our self.”

Britons have seen much disruption this year, including three prime ministers at home and a war abroad, the latter destabilising the global economy and throwing families into poverty. It has all been a reminder of the fragility of our world.

We have, however, also seen some of the best of humanity, such as the courage that Ukraine has shown in defying Russia, or the willingness of Britons to throw open their doors to Ukrainian refugees.

In a world of globalisation, dictatorship, technology and overbearing impersonal forces, the individual can still choose to make a difference. Christmas is the time when millions give, share, reconcile and change things for the better.

One could argue that the late Queen embodied this “solidarity”, always putting duty before self. Those who queued patiently to see her lying-in-state often remarked that they felt this was the “least they could do” given all she had done for them.

And when people ask how she managed to give so much without complaint, year after year, one answer was undoubtedly her faith.

Elizabeth II spoke with such confidence in her Christmas speeches because, for all her reputation for restraint, she was speaking straight from the heart. She was telling us, very straightforwardly, what she believed.

With King Charles’s speech – filmed in the beautiful candlelight of St George’s – we can see that her values endure strongly through her son. The guard may change, but the principles that motivate the tradition endure.