Gaelic to feature in King's coronation along with ‘public homage’

Gaelic will be heard during the King’s coronation, it has been announced, the first time it has featured as part of the service.

The anointing screen, which will be used in the coronation of King Charles III and has been handmade by the Royal School of Needlework, is seen in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in London

The congregation gathered for the crowning of the King and Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey will hear three Celtic languages – Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic – alongside English.

During the coronation, after a greeting and introduction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy) prayer will be sung in Welsh.

A spokesman for Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop’s office, said: “After the sermon, the hymn Veni Creator – Come Creator Spirit – will be sung.

“This ancient hymn has been part of coronation services since the 14th century, and is also used in ordination services when people are ordained deacons, priests and bishops.

“For the first time, we will hear this sung in the traditional languages of the nations of the United Kingdom: English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.”

Meanwhile millions watching the coronation around the world are to be asked to cry out and swear allegiance to the King, as the coronation is modernised to include the first ever Homage of the People.

Lambeth Palace said it was hoped the significant change to the historic service will result in a “great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the King” from those watching on television, online or gathered in the open air at big screens.

It replaces the traditional Homage of Peers in which a long line of hereditary peers knelt and made a pledge to the monarch in person.

The Archbishop will call upon “all persons of goodwill in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of the other Realms and the Territories to make their homage, in heart and voice, to their undoubted King, defender of all”.

A Lambeth Palace spokesman said: “The Homage of the People is particularly exciting because that’s brand new.

“That’s something that we can share in because of technological advances, so not just the people in the Abbey, but people who are online, on television, who are listening, and who are gathered in parks, at big screens and churches.

“Our hope is at that point, when the Archbishop invites people to join in, that people wherever they are, if they’re watching at home on their own, watching the telly, will say it out loud – this sense of a great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the King.”

The removal of the homages of hereditary peers also has the benefit of helping to reduce the length of the service, which is now two hours instead of around three as it was at the late Queen’s coronation.