Coronation celebrations in Connor

Wednesday May 10th 2023

Celebrating the Coronation in St Nicholas’ Parish Church, Carrickfergus.

Coronation fever gripped the nation at the weekend, as families tuned into the very special service for the crowning of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Saturday May 6.

Celebrations continued the following day, and churches across Connor Diocese joined in enthusiastically, with special services, coronation lunches, street and garden parties and more.

Below are images from some of the celebrations – if you would like your parish included, please send some pictures to dco@connordiocese.org and we will add them to the gallery.

Just to highlight a couple of celebrations, in Dunluce Parish, you will see Olivia McFaull planting a copper beech to mark the Coronation, watched by Neil Salisbury OBE, Deputy Lieutenant, and the Rev Harold Sharp.

Kilbride Parish Church made national news when Reuters turned up to take photographs at the parish’s Coronation Big Lunch, and this then featured on the national BBC News website. We can’t share the photo for copyright reasons, but if you click here and scroll to the bottom photograph, you will see the image that put Doagh and Royalty side by side!

In Magheragall, parishioner Ruth Bennett brought a very special photograph to the parish lunch – it shows Ruth as a young girl presenting a bouquet to our late Queen at Balmoral soon after the last Coronation in 1953.

Some Connor folk were in London for events surrounding the Coronation. Diocesan Development Officer Trevor Douglas and his wife Karen were at Buckingham Palace for the pre-Coronation Garden Party. We will hear how Trevor, who is general manager at Belfast Cathedral, got on in the next issue of the diocesan magazine, Connor Connections, which will also feature an interview with Johnny Conn of CLCGB, who was among the congregation in Westminster Abbey for the Coronation Service itself!

And well-known Royal enthusiast, the Rev Canon Derek Kerr, spent the night before the Coronation procession on the Mall determined to ensure he had a good view of our new King and Queen and other members of the Royal family on the big day. You can hear Derek talking about his experience in an interview on the Lynette Fay Show on BBC Radio Ulster.