This SC minister just got to meet King Charles III of Great Britain. Here’s why

On a Friday in early July, the Rev. Dr. Richard Gibbons was working on a sermon to be delivered the next Sunday at his Greenville church when he opened an email from a fellow he went to school with in Scotland 25 years before.

The Rev. Kenneth MacKenzie was asking if Gibbons would like to be a guest preacher at the Parish of Braemar and Crathie in Crathie, Scotland in August.

MacKenzie added in an almost oh-by-the-way comment, the king and queen would be in attendance. Balmoral Castle is about a half-mile from the rural church.

Gibbons’s first thought was it had to be a mistake. MacKenzie couldn’t have meant him. Preaching for King Charles III and Queen Camilla?

Then his mind moved to how overwhelming the idea was.

Then to how to get there.

He said to his wife, Ruth, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to buy a new hat.”

Growing up in Scotland, Gibbons revered the royal family, but the closest he ever got to one of them was his TV.

Now he’d be in a pulpit perhaps 15 feet away. Preaching. He’s no stranger to praying in front of dignitaries. Last July, he opened a session of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Someone asked him about that. What other important people had he prayed in front of so far. He was tempted to respond, “Does God count?” but he held himself back.

“Sometimes mischievousness can get me into trouble,” he said.

To prepare for the service in Scotland, he went to a favorite passage, Ephesians 3:14-20, in which Paul prays for the faithful to know the depth of Christ’s love, to know He is with them always. To know He strengthens them.

Gibbons and Ruth left on Aug. 17. They couldn’t tell anyone where they were going or what they were doing until after the service on Aug. 20.

He thinks the congregation was expecting someone with a Southern accent rather than a preacher who sounds a lot like them.

Gibbons said it would have been tempting to preach directly to the king and queen but knew his mission was to talk to the whole congregation of about 85 people. To not only tell them but to have them feel that whatever their burden was God would not leave their side.

He ended the sermon by telling them he had a heart attack in 2005 as he was picking his son up from the dentist in Inverness in Scotland. At the time, Gibbons was working for the Church of Scotland.

He didn’t have a pulse, but was revived on the fourth try. As he was lying in a street, God was with him, he said.

He was out of work for three months and when he was well, he applied to be pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Greenville. That was 2007. The church now has 2,700 active members and recently completed a $34 million worship and arts center expansion.

“I am blessed beyond measure,” he said.

A bonus for the four-day time in Scotland was meeting with King Charles at Balmoral after the service for 25 minutes, MacKenzie, the minister of the Parish of Braemar and Crathie, drove the Gibbons through security. Gibbons said he was tempted to give the royal wave, but held himself back.

They met with the king in a drawing room, and Gibbons was impressed with how much King Charles knew about Greenville, the Upstate and South Carolina. They were given a drink — Gibbons thinks it was Sprite, but he barely touched it, so enthralled he was with the king’s friendliness and insight.