Norfolk vicar ‘honoured’ to have attended ‘spine-tingling’ coronation of King Charles III

A vicar from Norfolk says it was “a real privilege” to have attended the coronation of King Charles III last weekend. The Revd Matthew Price who is the vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston received the invitation as he was a recent recipient of the British Empire Medal.

He received an email that told him he would be getting an invitation through the post, but he said it still felt surreal when the regal envelope arrived at his home, even if he did already know it was on the way. He said the invitation was about the size of an A4 piece of paper and included the King’s cypher and the Buckingham Palace postal stamp. He said it was “just a beautiful thing that arrived” and wasted no time in showing it to people in his local community.

Having made his way down to London the day before the coronation, Matthew was donning his morning suit and British Empire medal at 7am ready to go into the Abbey. All guests had to go through a security check in Victoria Tower Gardens before being led to the Great West Door of the Abbey to take their seats.

Read more: Norfolk vicar receives invite to King’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey

Matthew said: “It was really extraordinary that they took us in through the Great West Door of the Abbey where the King and Queen would later walk in. I thought we would have come in through a side door. It was in front of a whole gallery of press who were arranged opposite the Abbey so it felt really special.

“I was sitting in the nave and there wasn’t a seating plan so it was basically just bag yourself a seat as soon as you got in. I was in the third row back, a few seats up from Lionel Richie. I went to the toilet in the Abbey and on the way out I bumped into Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ant and Dec were just across the way as well and I managed to say hello to them. My children thought that was amazing, that was the most exciting thing for them.”

He described the ceremony itself as “spine-tinging” and said the acoustics of the Abbey “filled the entire building with music”. Matthew could not quite believe his eyes when the King and Queen entered the Abbey and made their way down the nave. The regalia made its way down first with the King and Queen following, and Matthew could not quite believe just how close he was to this moment in history.

He said: “I was struck by how human the King looked at points. There was this amazing ceremony going on but equally it was just a man who, because of his birth, happened to have been called to this extraordinary job. Particularly when he was anointed and they took off all his robes and it was just him in his white shirt, he almost felt sort of vulnerable.

“When the Archbishop crowned the King and stood back and said very loudly and strongly ‘God save the King’ and the whole Abbey responded, that was another spine tingling moment.”

Once the ceremony had finished, those of us watching on the TV saw the huge military parade as the newly crowned King and Queen made their way back to Buckingham Palace. But in the Abbey, Matthew said things felt much more relaxed as people made their own way out. Whilst most attendees would have been heading home by this point, Matthew made his way over to the media village in Green Park for his CNN debut.

After Matthew tweeted a picture of his invitation, he was invited by CNN to be interviewed by Anderson Cooper, a well-known US news anchor, following the ceremony. He said that he did not realise the sheer scale of this interview until his friends in America had explained to him what a big name Anderson Cooper was.

It’s now over a week on from that historic day and Matthew says he still finds it surreal to think that he was there.

“Everyone’s been talking about it this week and I have to keep reminding myself that I was there and I was in the Abbey. I think it’s something that I will remember for a very long time and to have come home with things like the order of service to show the kids, it’s just amazing.

“I’m going to frame the invitation, it’s worthy of a frame! And I’m going to keep the order of service. My children have already looked up on eBay how much the order of service might fetch but I’m certainly not going to sell it! It was a very surreal 24 hours and it was a real privilege to be there.”

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