King Charles meets emotional Australian crowd and says “great joy” at the return

Hundreds of well-wishers greeted the United Kingdom’s King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla in Sydney on Sunday as the royal couple went to church, with the King saying it was a “great joy” to return to Australia on his first visit to country as sovereign.

Charles’ sixteenth official visit to Australia, where he attended school for six months as a teenager in 1966, is also his first major trip overseas since being diagnosed with cancer.

“What a great joy it is to come to Australia for the first time as a sovereign and to renew the love for this country and its people that I have loved for so long,” he said in a speech to the NSW Parliament.

New South Wales state MP Kellie Sloane, whose electorate covers some of Sydney’s most popular beaches, wrote on the social media platform Bondi Beach.

The royal couple were welcomed first into St Thomas’ Anglican Church by the Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, and Sunday school children, waving Australian flags.

Camilla received a bouquet of flowers from the minister’s wife, Ellie Mantle, who asked if they had recovered from “jet lag” after the long flight to Australia on Friday. “More or less,” Camilla replied.

Inside the church, Charles and Camilla signed two Bibles, including one that belonged to the Australian prime minister and chaplain of the First Fleet of ships that brought convicts from the United Kingdom to the Australian penal colony in 1788.

Outside, the royal couple greeted and chatted with a large crowd of enthusiastic fans, some of whom were singing “God Sakve the King.”

It was the first chance for the public to meet Charles and Camilla since they arrived in Australia’s largest city on Friday evening, and hundreds of supporters outnumbered a small group of protesters.

Source: Terra

Rose

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