Dec. 25 (UPI) — Britain’s King Charles III on Monday urged listeners to “protect each other” as well as the Earth’s environment in his second annual Christmas address as the country’s monarch.
“At a time of increasingly tragic conflict around the world, I pray that we can also do all in our power to protect each other,” said the 75-year-old king, who pre-recorded the address from a room in London’s Buckingham Palace.
He made the remarks as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants raged in Gaza, where local health authorities say more than 20,000 people — mostly women and children — have died since Jerusalem began retaliations for the Oct. 7 surprise attack in which 1,200 Israelis were slain.
“The words of Jesus seem more than ever relevant: ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you,'” Charles said. “Such values are universal, drawing together our Abrahamic family of religions, and other belief systems, across the Commonwealth and wider world.
“They remind us to imagine ourselves in the shoes of our neighbors, and to seek their good as we would our own.”
The British monarchy’s Christmas Day message has been a tradition since the 1930s, but on Monday featured something never before seen — a living Christmas tree. In the video, Charles is standing beside a decorated tree, which serves to emphasize the environmental message he delivers in the address.
The tree is festooned with hand-turned wood, pinecones, brown glass, dried oranges and paper, Buckingham Palace said.
As he has on other occasions during his reign as King of England and previously as Prince of Wales, Charles stressed the protection of the natural world, linking it with the duties of religious believers to God.
“Honoring the whole of creation” as “a manifestation of the divine” is an act of service, he said, adding, “To care for this creation is a responsibility owned by people of all faiths and of none.
“We care for the Earth for the sake of our children’s children.”
