They probably didn’t expect it. THE roi Charles III and the Queen Camilla certainly received an enthusiastic welcome in Sydney, which was expected, but they were faced with a rather embarrassing moment during the first day of their royal tour of Australia, this Sunday, October 20.
The protocol of Charles III and Camilla thus provided for a Sunday religious service in Sydney. The theme of the service was “The Good News About Jesus” and included religious songs Rejoice! The Lord is King, Tell Out, My Soul et Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. And as is tradition, at the end of the service the royal couple signed the church guestbook, also known as ‘Australia’s first Bible’, initialed by all members of the family royal during their previous visits to the antipodes, including by Queen Elizabeth, in 1954… but also by Charles and Princess Diana, during their first royal tour in 1983. At the time, Lady Di was only 21 years old when she embarked on her first ever official trip to Australia and New Zealand in March 1983.
This Sunday, King Charles III used his own fountain pen to sign the book and joked: “By the way, what day is today?” », before handing the pen to Queen Camilla so that she in turn signs, a few pages of Diana’s words 41 years earlier. The first day of the royal couple’s engagements in Australia was greeted with loud applause from well-wishers who had gathered to see them, as well as an anti-monarchy protest outside the church. This is Charles’s seventeenth trip to Australia and his first since he became king in 2022.
