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The stations of the cross of this crucifixion of this King at Easter can be found on social media.

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“Buckingham Palace confirms King Charles will not issue Easter message this year,” was the message that came across on X.

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Great story – until you look into it a bit.

When you do, it’s clear this is more of a manufactured story with a lot of spin that spread thanks to social media.

If Buckingham Palace has confirmed that the King “will not issue an easter message” as the GB News story indicates, the Royal Family’s spokespeople have not done so with the Toronto Sun so far. Nor does it say anything about not marking Easter anywhere on the Royal Family’s X account or media pages.

In fact, what it does show is King Charles and Queen Camilla attended an Easter Maundy Thursday church service in Wales and they are scheduled to attend Easter mass on Sunday at Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Chapel.

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No Easter snub

There’s no snub on Easter on record from the head of the Church of England and reigning monarch who has been battling cancer.

What there seems to be is a different approach to honourong Easter this year.

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There is no repeat, so far at least, of the Easter message the King delivered in 2025 where on the Royal Family’s X account quoted King Charles saying, “The abiding message of Easter is that God so loved the world – the whole world – that He sent His son to live among us to show us how to love one another, and to lay down His own life for others in a love that proved stronger than death” and “there are three virtues that the world still needs – faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love It is with these timeless truths in my mind, and my heart, that I wish you all a blessed and peaceful Easter.”

There’s still time for the King to issue a similar statement on video or print for this year but whether he does or does not, it’s not a Royal tradition to offer an Easter message as the Monarch always does for Christmas. The King’s mother, for example, Queen Elizabeth II rarely issued Easter wishes.

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Criticism and concern rages on

But this has not stopped the criticism and concern.

“It is truly a grave disappointment to learn that His Majesty, King Charles III, will not issue an Easter message this year, especially when, in a previous year, he did so with clarity and conviction, yet without a singular focus on the Christian Faith and Church, of which he is Supreme Governor in the Church of England,” wrote Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar, who heads the Confessing Anglican Church.

“At such a pivotal moment in our nation, when many across this United Kingdom feel that our Christian identity is being rapidly stripped away, this silence from the Crown is not neutrality, it is absence.”

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Dewar reminds: “Let us not forget that Easter is not merely a footnote in our national story. It is its very foundation! A nation that is untethered from the Resurrection of Christ risks forgetting not only who it is, but why it stands at all!.”

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Royal watcher journalist Angela Levin on Talk TV said: “I can’t understand that. I think it’s appalling and it’s appalling doubly because they’re not telling us why.”

She added that the King “does quite a lot on Muslims, and he likes Muslims and he’s with them. He only did it a few weeks when they had a holiday.”

King sends out greetings to everyone

While the King did wish the commonwealth’s Muslims greetings for Ramadan and Eid, on his Royal Family X page, you can see that he also sent out messages to the Hindu community to mark Diwali and the Sikh community for Vaisakhi. Charles also issues hundreds of messages to many communities over the course of the year, including one in this news cycle to Canada’s astronaut currently on his way to the moon, Col. Jeremy Hansen.

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All opinions are important and this column is no knock on anybody who sees it differently. I looked into this story with an open mind and was prepared to write whatever I turned up. What I found was this seems to have been spun into something bigger. I reached out to Buckingham Palace and to journalists and commentators in the UK, but there wasn’t much digging necessary.

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King Charles is the monarch of a commonwealth with many races and religions and his public messaging consistently reflects that reality more than it tries to favour or abandon any one particular group.

“He is the lead of the Christian wave, and he must actually behave like that,” said Levin.

She is entitled to her comments but when you investigate it, King Charles does behave like a Christian. If he didn’t attend Easter church services, her view might carry more weight. But the King did go to church Thursday and is scheduled to go for Easter Mass Sunday as well.

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In fact, the most recent X posts from the Royal Family, show the King actually in the church for the service to mark the occasion of The Last Supper.

That was the King’s message sent out to the public this year, which he seems to be in social media circles being crucified for.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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