The Commonwealth Day service is set to start this afternoon, as the club of 56 countries which evolved out of the British Empire, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.
The service will be broadcast live from Westminster Abbey on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 4:35 p.m., as well as on BBC’s YouTube channel.
The event will include performances from musicians and groups from Uganda, India and Samoa.
Phoebe Coles has been selected to represent Cyprus as the flagbearer at the Commonwealth Day Service and Celebration.
Last year, the event featured a performance by the Cypriot all-female “Amalgamation Choir“.
King Charles absent due to health issues
King Charles on Monday hailed the work of the Commonwealth, although the British monarch will be absent from annual celebrations for the organisation he leads as he recuperates from cancer treatment.
The Commonwealth Day events are the most significant annual royal occasion that Charles, 75, will miss since he was forced to postpone public appearances while he undergoes treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.
His wife Queen Camilla will instead lead senior royals when they gather for a service at London’s Westminster Abbey followed by a reception at Commonwealth’s international headquarters.
Charles will not be the only senior royal who will be absent on Monday. Kate, wife of his eldest son and heir Prince William, will not attend as she continues her recovery from abdominal surgery.
For most of its existence, the Commonwealth, one of the world’s biggest international organisations covering 2.5 billion people, was led by Charles’ late mother Queen Elizabeth who was instrumental in its creation and regarded it as one of her proudest achievements.
