Queen Camilla represented her husband throughout the Royal Maundy Service at Worcester Cathedral, presenting baggage of specifically minted cash to folks being honored for public service.
The occasion is held yearly on the Thursday earlier than Easter, often known as Maundy Thursday in Britain.
The private message from Charles comes after the current bulletins that each the king and the Princess of Wales had been recognized with most cancers.
Whereas the message made no direct reference to the royals’ well being issues, it marked the king’s first public remark since his daughter-in-law revealed she was present process chemotherapy.
Charles mentioned that Jesus set an “instance of how we must always serve and look after one another,” and the way as a nation “we’d like and profit significantly from those that prolong the hand of friendship to us, particularly in a time of want.”
The service, which dates again to the 12 months 600, commemorates the Final Supper, when Jesus washed the ft of his disciples as an act of service and humility.
Sovereigns not wash the ft of the needy as they did in medieval occasions. As an alternative, Camilla offered purses stuffed with particular cash, often known as Maundy cash, to 75 ladies and 75 males, a quantity dictated by the king’s age.
The service “jogs my memory of the pledge I made at the start of the Coronation Service â to observe Christ’s instance ‘to not be served however to serve,'” Charles mentioned in his message.
“That I’ve all the time tried to do and proceed to do, with my complete coronary heart.”
The king stepped again from public appearances in early February, when he introduced that he would endure therapy for an undisclosed sort of most cancers.
How the UK press reacted to Kate’s most cancers announcement
He has continued to hold out his state duties, together with common conferences with the prime minister and reviewing and signing authorities paperwork.
The Princess of Wales, spouse of Prince William, introduced final week that she, too, was being handled for an undisclosed sort of most cancers.
The information got here after the princess, previously Kate Middleton, underwent belly surgical procedure in January.