Wilton Park staff reflect on fond memories of their time with the King

Charles gave the opening speech at the dialogue, titled A Sense of the Sacred: Building Bridges Between Islam and the West. Some long-service Wilton Park colleagues remember it well and have reflected on their memories of meeting His Majesty.

Head chef Tony Franklin remembers Charles stopping to joke with the chefs. Tony said: “He asked whether the kitchens were going to be OK with all the chefs out to meet him, and whether we’d turned the fryer off.”

Tony, who joined Wilton Park as a chef in 1993, received a British Empire Medal for services to British Diplomacy in the King's 2023 New Year Honours. He recalls the 1996 lunch menu chosen by Charles – spinach timbale with red pepper vinaigrette, poached salmon with spring vegetables and fresh fruit plate.

Wilton House event supervisor Judi Maledy also met Charles at the 1996 event, when she had just joined Wilton Park as a secretary. Judi said: "Charles was lovely and stopped to chat to all of us."

Attendees at the dialogue included the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the Bishops of Coventry and Rochester, and the director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

The opening lines of Charles' speech included: "I start from the belief that Islamic civilization at its best, like many of the religions of the East – Judaism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism – has an important message for the West in the way it has retained a more integrated and integral view of the sanctity of the world around us.

"I feel that we in the West could be helped to rediscover those roots of our own understanding by an appreciation of the Islamic tradition’s deep respect for the timeless traditions of the natural order. I believe that process could help in the task of bringing our two faiths closer together.

"It could also help us in the West to rethink, and for the better, our practical stewardship of man and his environment — in fields like health-care, the natural environment and agriculture, as well as in architecture and urban planning."

The speech discussed the importance of collaboration between faiths, and of learning from Islam’s view of the sanctity of the natural world.

The key themes – the importance of respect for the environment, arts and culture, and the strength created by multi-faith collaborations – reflected Charles' lifelong interests and these were also reflected in the recent Coronation celebrations.

An extract from the speech was also printed in The Times on December 14, 1996. The speech continued: “Modern materialism is unbalanced and increasingly damaging in its long-term consequences. Yet nearly all the great religions of the world have held an integral view of the sanctity of the world.

“The Christian message with, for example, its deeply mystical and symbolic doctrine of the Incarnation, has been traditionally a message of the unity of the worlds of spirit and matter, and of god's manifestation in this world an in mankind.

"But during the past three centuries, in the Western world at least, a dangerous division has occurred in the way we perceive the world around us. Science has tried to assume a monopoly – even a tyranny – over our understanding.

"Religion and science have become separated, so that now, as Wordsworth said, 'Little we see in nature that is ours'. Science has attempted to take over the natural world from God; it has fragmented the cosmos and relegated the sacred to a separate and secondary compartment of our understanding, divorced from practical, day to day existence.

"We are only now beginning to gauge the disastrous results. We in the Western world seem to have lost a sense of the wholeness of our environment, and of our immense and inalienable responsibility to the whole of creation. This has led to an increasing failure to appreciate or understand tradition and the wisdom of our forebears, accumulated over the centuries. Indeed, tradition is positively discriminated against – as if it were some socially unacceptable disease. In my view, a more holistic approach is needed now."

Charles sent a thank you note following the event, from Highgrove House on Christmas Eve in 1996 to John Coles at Wilton Park. It read: "Dear John, Thank you very much for chairing the seminar at Wilton Park last week, especially when I know how busy you are!

"I enjoyed the discussion immensely and thought the combination of speakers and guests worked extremely well. If the seminar has helped to sow a few seeds of interest and reflection among those who took part in this important subject, and if it helps to push forward in a very modest way the process of understanding with the Islamic world, it will have been worth all the hard work which I know Colin Jennings and his people put into the occasion. This comes with my very best wishes. Yours most sincerely Charles."

The 50th anniversary celebration was very much in keeping with Wilton Park’s tradition as a home of strategic thought and respectful dialogue. Wilton Park continues to be the place that people go when they want to resolve critical issues, debate sensitive topics, and build understanding between groups.