West Cumbria Shootings

This is the text of a Thought for the Day I gave on BBC Wiltshire on Sunday 6th June.

Following the talk I spoke about how the police must feel in situations like this and also spoke to the Bishop of Carlisle who was being interviewed "down the line".

The day after the shootings in West Cumbria the church leaders issued a statement in which they said that

All the churches from across a very wide area have been, and will continue to be, involved in supporting those affected by yesterday’s tragedy. In addition to ministering to people in our communities, clergy will be available to support the hospital and emergency services chaplains as required. The church will continue to play a longer term role in providing support and sanctuary to those who need it, and we strongly encourage all churches in the area to make their buildings and people available for people to come and pray, light candles and have someone to talk to.

And in an interview he gave last week the Right Rev James Newcombe, the Bishop of Carlisle said:

The Church is there for everyone, giving support long after the funeral flowers have wilted.

Emotional wounds of this kind are not quickly healed and we will all continue to pray and listen in the months ahead.

Faith can give me, and others in Cumbria, hope that we are not alone.

Only with faith can we begin to grapple with something as awful and difficult to understand as this.

Despite living in a time when many people no longer attend church, it’s still a common instinct among what is rudely called the “unchurched” to stumble into church at times of national bereavement and violent tragedy. We associate Princess Diana’s death with the masses of flowers left outside Buckingham Place and many other places. Yet I remember how people came to churches at that time to light candles, to say prayers and to write in books of remembrance.

On 9/11 small crowds of dazed bankers found sanctuary in London’s City churches, as they did in Manhattan, as they heard of what had happened to friends, colleagues and strangers in the Twin Towers in New York. On 7^th July 2005, some of those same City of London churches offered spiritual solace and practical refreshment for the emergency services that descended selflessly into the Underground hell of the bombing at Aldgate.

And it is quite possible that today, this morning, people in West Cumbria, in Whitehaven and Egremont, Frizington and Lamplugh, Wilton and Gosforth, Seascale and Boot, all places where Derrick Bird shot his victims, it is quite possible that some people who normally do not attend church will be there this morning.

They will be going to find some peace in their troubled minds. They will be going to try and find answers. They will be going to be alongside others in the community who have suffered the same sorts of trauma and shock. And maybe some of them will be going because they want to get angry at God for allowing this to happen.

All those are good and valid reasons for being at church today.

At times such as these the Church is recognised as being a place all in a community can turn to whether they are people of faith or none.

I imagine that for the families of those killed by Derrick Bird, and indeed Derrick Bird’s own family, the major question must be Why? Why did he do it? Why did he shoot my wife, my husband, my son, my daughter? We’ve all heard the theories about the disputed will and his worries about unpaid tax. But those theories still do not explain why he shot as many people as he did. And chances are no one will ever know Why.

That is what will make this dreadful event all the more awful to come to terms with. There will be lots of questions and perhaps very few answers. And I hope and pray that for the people in West Cumbria most closely affected by the events of 2^nd June, they will at least be able to find some comfort and support from their Christian neighbours even if there are no answers.

I’d like to conclude by reading the prayer that has been written by the Church Leaders of West Cumbria in response to the shootings on 2^nd June.

O God, Creator of us all,
in your Son, Jesus you have walked the way of darkness and death,
you send your Spirit of healing and truth to all in need

We pray for those injured or bereaved by inexplicable violence
May your gracious compassion surround and uphold them

We pray for all individuals and communities whose lives have been changed by this tragedy
May your sustaining love be present in all expressions of support offered and help received

We give thanks for the commitment and dedication of the emergency services
And pray that they may be given the strength they need to serve others

We give thanks for the resilience and courage of West Cumbrians
And pray that the bonds of community care and concern may hold fast at this time

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer
And let our cry come unto you

Amen.