King Charles has the Queen’s ‘healing’ ability, says archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury has compared the new King with his late mother, saying he also has the ability to bring ‘healing’ to people.

In his sermon yesterday, the Most Rev Justin Welby said many people would be ‘navigating their way around the raw and ragged edges of grief’.

He said those who met the Queen were ‘always struck by her ability to make them feel as though they were the most important, the only person in the room, the only person in the street, in the crowd’.

He continued: ‘King Charles III has the same ability to see the value of each person as God sees them. That is his conscious understanding of people.’

Mr Welby recalled seeing Charles work his way around the Lady Chapel at Liverpool Cathedral, where there were families of police officers who had died.

He said Charles spoke to an officer’s young widow, adding: ‘By the time the then-Prince of Wales – His Majesty – had done the rounds, he’d talked to everyone in that chapel; and every person there, and I quote that young widow, felt they mattered uniquely and found healing.’

The Archbishop recalled the Queen inviting a Rwandan woman, who had escaped the genocide but lost almost her entire family, to sit next to her at the end of a lunch, where they spoke for more than 20 minutes.

Reflecting on how the woman felt, Mr Welby told worshippers: ‘When I spoke to her later, she said there was healing.’ He added: ‘Both Her late Majesty and His Majesty treat others as special because, for both, their faith is built on the same rock – the rock of Christ.’

Mr Welby talked about grief and how this may be a difficult time for people mourning loved ones.

At the start of the service at Canterbury Cathedral, which began about an hour after the Queen’s coffin left Balmoral, he said it was an ‘unexpectedly extraordinary Sunday’.

Meanwhile, thousands of young British Muslims have gathered to pay tribute to the Queen and pledge their allegiance and loyalty to Great Britain.

Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from across the UK met in Hampshire for the National Ijtema, a three-day Islamic congregation.

Preparation for the event – attended by 5,000 Ahmadi Muslim men – began last year and included indoor and outdoor sports and academic contests.

But following the Queen’s death, the sporting activities were replaced by a special exhibition paying tribute to the monarch and a book of condolence was signed by attendees.

The flags of the four nations and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association flag flew at half-mast all weekend.

Youth association president Abdul Quddus Arif, said: ‘The true Islam is a religion of compassion and kindness to all, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender or beliefs.

‘As British Muslims, we are saddened by the demise of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and we stand together with the nation.’

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