LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)—Britain’s King Charles III called for “compassion and reconciliation” at a time of “division” across the world in his Christmas Day message Thursday.

The 77-year-old monarch said he found it “enormously encouraging” how people of different faiths had a “shared longing for peace”.

Charles praised individuals who risked their lives to save others in situations of violence, including those caught up in the killings at a Jewish event at Bondi Beach in Australia this month.

“Individuals and communities have displayed spontaneous bravery, instinctively placing themselves in harm’s way to defend others,” said the king whose words were accompanied by images of events at Bondi.

Eighty years after the end of World War II, the king said the courage of servicemen and women and the way communities came together after the conflict carried “a timeless message for us all”.

“These are the values which have shaped our country,” he said.

“As we hear of division both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight,” Charles said in a message recorded at Westminster Abbey and broadcast nationally.

– No mention of royal tribulations –

“With the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong. It seems to me that we need to cherish the values of compassion and reconciliation the way our Lord lived and died.”

In October, Charles became the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pope since a schism with Rome 500 years ago, in a service led by Leo XIV at the Vatican. He called it a “historic moment of spiritual unity”.

A few days earlier Charles met survivors of a deadly attack on a synagogue and members of the Jewish community in the northern English city of Manchester.

This is the second year running that the king has made his festive address away from a royal residence.

Last year he spoke from a former hospital chapel as he thanked medical staff for supporting the royal family in a year in which he announced his cancer diagnosis.

This year, Charles did not make any reference to his battle with the illness, nor did he mention his younger brother Andrew who in October was stripped of his royal titles over his links to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The message did feature images of his son and heir Prince William, as well as his grandson George.

The Christmas song that ended the message was sung by a Ukrainian choir formed after Russia’s 2022 invasion of their country.

The king and other members of the royal family, including Andrew’s daughters, attended a Christmas service at St Mary Magdalene Church on Charles’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.