11/09/2016 Songs of Praise


11/09/2016

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15 years ago today, the world changed for ever.

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On the day we now call 9/11,

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terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

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For all its shocking audacity, 9/11 wasn't a one-off.

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And it's been followed by an increasing number of

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terrorist atrocities.

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But amidst the horror there are stories of hope

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and I'm in central London to find them.

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Cardinal Vincent Nichols reflects after his own visits

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to the scenes of the attacks in France.

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The Christian virtue of hope is living an uncertain present

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in the light of a firm and clear future.

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And we hear from former hostage Terry Waite,

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25 years since his release from captivity.

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Never, ever believe

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that there's nothing that the ordinary person can't do.

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When we hear shocking news of terrorist attacks,

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many of us turn to the Church for words of comfort and confidence.

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The hymn writer, Stuart Townend, has tried to find these words

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in our first song.

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Terror attacks can affect anyone. That's what's so terrifying.

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While the grieving goes on for the nearly 3,000 people

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who lost their lives on 9/11,

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others have had to come to terms with more recent attacks.

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Not least, in France.

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Only a few weeks ago, the lorry attack in Nice,

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followed days later by the murder of Father Jacques Hamel in Rouen,

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shook the nation and the world.

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Members of the French congregation of Notre Dame in London

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have been looking for answers in these difficult times.

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The answer is kind of silence and prayer.

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Just to try to get to terms with the shock

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and get to terms with the event itself.

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When praying and when actually centring oneself on Christ,

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we are open to a new way, or Christ's way

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to deal with the situation

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because he was also confronted with violence

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and he reacted in such a way which was peaceful.

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Do you feel afraid?

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No, I wouldn't really feel afraid, I would feel concerned

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and worried but not afraid.

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The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales,

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Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has just returned

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from personal visits to Nice and Rouen.

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In both places, there were two things that struck me.

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One was a cry to God. Quite explicitly -

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"Listen, God, to us, in this sorrow."

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And the other expression was, "This will not break our spirit,

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"our desire and determination to live good, human, trusting lives

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"is stronger than fanaticism."

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What do you make of suggestions

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that churches should be thinking about security now?

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CCTV cameras, bag searches and so on.

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I think most churches will be very quietly reviewing

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their security situation

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but determined not to be turning people away,

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not to become fortresses, not to become places where

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the stranger can't wander in and be welcomed.

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How should we deal with fear?

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Talk.

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Don't bottle it up.

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Express it and explore it in a calm and considered fashion.

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So hope for you is something that is strong?

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Quite often, people think of hope

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as being so secure in the present they can face an uncertain future.

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I rather turn it round.

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The Christian virtue of hope is living an uncertain present

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in the light of a firm and clear future.

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Yes, there will be moments of terrible darkness

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but in the end, a fulfilment will be there for everyone

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who, at least in a marginal way,

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opens their hearts to God and to his design and love.

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It's a painful truth that terrorist attacks occupy

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more headlines these days than ever.

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One man well qualified to take the long view is Terry Waite,

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who was released 25 years ago

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from being a captive in the Lebanon for five years.

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Pam has been to meet him.

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Terry Waite is one of the few who knows

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what it really feels like for a Christian to be held captive,

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tortured, threatened with execution

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and lived to tell the tale.

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Since his release, he's continued to devote much of his time

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to humanitarian and peacekeeping work.

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I've managed to track down Terry Waite here in west London

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at the YMCA, an organisation that he's regularly been involved with

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over the last 25 years.

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Meeting with young people and working to give them opportunities

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is, Terry believes, crucial to building a peaceful future.

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Well, as some people will know,

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I spent almost five years in very extreme circumstances

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in solitary confinement, chained to the wall in a room

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with no natural light, and no books or papers for many years.

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All these years on, when you think back on your captors,

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who treated you so inhumanly, so cruelly, how do you feel about them?

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I didn't fall into Stockholm Syndrome.

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In other words, you know,

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that means that you become totally sympathetic

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and actually join their side. I didn't do that.

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I wouldn't let them off the hook. I always told them,

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"I believe what you have done is inappropriate, is wrong."

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On the other hand, I could understand why they did it.

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They had been brought up in a situation

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where they see nothing but warfare, along comes a charismatic leader,

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persuades them that the way to get what they wish is to fight

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for it and to behave in the way that they behave.

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If you can understand why people behave as they behave,

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that is at least a step towards resolving the conflicts

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that exist between people.

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The world has changed a great deal in 25 years.

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You have spoken about your thought that we are slipping

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towards the start of the Third World War.

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I said that some time ago.

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And you probably noticed the Pope picked up my words.

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I don't think he did, really. But he did actually say the same thing.

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I think it is a serious situation.

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It's a world war that's fought in very, very different ways

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than it was in World War I, World War II.

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Now, at any given moment,

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an act of violence can occur anywhere in the world.

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Any given moment, totally unexpectedly and innocent,

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innocent people are killed.

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Where is God in all this?

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If I was God, I think I'd be despairing at the human condition.

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Somehow we have to learn how to face this new reality

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and how to get to the root of the issue

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and to ask ourselves, "Why are people behaving like that?"

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What is the cause?

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It's not so very long ago that in Syria, Christians,

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Muslims and Jews shared the same place of worship.

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That now has broken down and Christians are being persecuted

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and sent out of that region, and yet, even in that situation,

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Christians and Muslims are still meeting quietly,

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trying to build the barriers.

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I've always said, never, ever believe that there's nothing

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that the ordinary person can't do

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and I think the words of Christ summed it up,

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"Love your neighbour as yourself."

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And those words, if they're followed,

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will lead you to an understanding of the great mystery that is God.

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That was Blessed Be Your Name by Matt and Beth Redman.

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Our next hymn was also written in the midst of tragedy.

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By a 19th century American lawyer, Horatio Spafford,

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after hearing that his four daughters had died

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in a mid-Atlantic shipwreck.

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His wife survived, her two-word telegram, bearing the awful news,

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simply said, "Saved alone."

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Spafford wrote It Is Well With My Soul in response.

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# When peace like a river

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# Attendeth my way

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# When sorrows like sea billows roll

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# Whatever my lot

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# Thou hast taught me to say

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# It is well

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# It is well with my soul

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# It is well

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# With my soul

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# It is well

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# It is well with my soul

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# And, Lord, haste the day

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# When the faith shall be sight

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# The clouds be rolled back as a scroll

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# The trumpets shall sound

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# And the Lord shall descend

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# Even so, it is well with my soul

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# It is well

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# With my soul

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# It is well

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# It is well with my soul

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# It is well. #

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The terrible events of 9/11 commemorated in this garden,

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in Grosvenor Square, unfolded exactly 15 years ago today.

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The writer of our next song, Father Liam Lawton,

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discovered that his words had brought hope

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to one group of New Yorkers in the aftermath of the tragedy.

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I grew up in a home that had a great love of music.

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It was like a second language in our home.

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And then I went to college to do an arts degree.

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I decided to study theology as well and then I was ordained.

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But alongside that, I always kept on the music.

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So I'd been working part-time in the ministry

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and also doing a lot of music as well, workshops

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and performances and composing.

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HE PLAYS PIANO

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I think the music becomes a language that expresses an awful lot

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more than maybe words can.

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My uncle was my music mentor.

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And he was tragically killed in a road accident

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and so for many, many weeks afterwards

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I found it really, really difficult. I went into a dark place.

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I just didn't want to sing, I didn't want to play,

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I didn't want to do anything.

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Somebody had sent me a card,

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and there were two lines in it which said,

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"When the dark clouds veil the sky, I am by your side."

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It was exactly how I was feeling.

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So I sat down that evening and I penned the words for this,

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and I called it The Clouds' Veil.

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So I sang it and I found it a healing experience for me,

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where I was.

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And the day after 9/11, I received a phone call from the United States

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from the publishers, saying they were putting together the music

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for the memorial services and they felt

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that the most appropriate lines were from the piece,

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The Clouds' Veil.

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"When the dark clouds veil the sky, I am by your side."

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And so they asked if I would allow it to be downloaded freely.

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And then there was a girl who sang in New York

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and she sang for the first funeral which was for Father Mychal Judge.

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He was the first person to die in 9/11.

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MUSIC: Amazing Grace

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And so many of the fire officers and the police officers,

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their families were present there as well

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and the song obviously touched a chord with them

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and they asked that she would sing it at their funerals as well.

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It was very poignant and, you know, very touching for me.

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One of the military chaplains took the song

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and they started using it in the Army as well

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so all the young soldiers who are going out to Afghanistan and Iraq

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were given a prayer card with the text of the song on it,

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and a little crucifix which they could carry on their top lapels.

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My belief is that the world will only be healed through beauty.

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And I find that in places like this here,

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I think to bring something worthwhile into the world

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you need a sense of contemplation.

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I think all beautiful music is born out of silence.

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All inspiration, all creativity, needs silence.

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# Even when the sun shall fall in sleep

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# Even when at dawn the sky shall weep

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# Even in the night when storms shall rise

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# You are by my side

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# You are by my side

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# Held in memory

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# The thoughts we have of yesterday

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# May our future be

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# A resting place where love will stay

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# Even though the rain hides the stars

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# Even though the mist swirls the hills

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# Even when the dark clouds veil the sky

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# You are by my side

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# Even when the sun shall fall in sleep

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# Even when at dawn the sky shall weep

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# Even in the night when storms shall rise

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# You are by my side

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# You are by...

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# My side. #

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In July, the Nice lorry attack killed 86 people

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and traumatised many more.

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Esther Serwah was on holiday there with her family

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and stumbled across the scene only minutes after the attack.

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A lot of people were running from the promenade to the marketplace.

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I saw a lot of people on the floor.

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So, I was standing there looking at this,

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and I was wondering, what's all this?

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That's when I realised that all the people on the floor

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was dead bodies and that was the saddest thing to see.

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I decided to go to church to pray because I always have faith.

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I asked myself why this has to have happened.

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I don't have the answer.

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I have a lot of faith in God.

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And my faith helped me to overcome what I saw.

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And I think the Christians,

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we need to be more united

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and pray for those who commit such offences.

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I think, sometimes,

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they themselves don't know the reason why they are doing that.

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Few of us know what to say after a tragedy.

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But some have responded with peaceful action.

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Parishioners at St John on Bethnal Green

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invited local Muslims to join their Sunday service.

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On behalf of my Muslim colleagues who are here this morning,

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we condemn all forms of terrorism in this world.

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It's been a great opportunity to be clear about our faith

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but at the same time to be welcoming

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and to stand together in solidarity with Muslims too.

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We are here to show that Muslims, as well as Christians,

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all believe in love and respect and the loss of any life is tragic.

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We are here united against every difficulty, every hatred,

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every terrorism. We want to pray to Almighty God

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to bring all peace and happiness.

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I think it's important because blue, green, yellow, Latino, black,

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you know, Jew, whatever. We are all people.

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That is the essence of, you know, our humanity.

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The constraints of faith shouldn't be constraints.

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If we can bond and engage and value each other

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then we can actually take a step forward

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and move beyond our comfort zones.

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Cardinal Vincent Nichols believes

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that Christians have good reason to be confident.

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The response for the Christian is to refer all of this

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into the light of faith,

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into the light of Christ's victory over death

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and to affirm again and again that love is stronger than death.

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Make me an instrument of thy peace.

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Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

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When there is injury, pardon.

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Where there is doubt, faith.

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Where there is despair, hope.

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Where there is darkness, light.

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Where there is sadness, joy.

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As we've heard this week, we may live in troubled times

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but peace-making is a choice that's open to all.

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We finish with an uplifting song of praise

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focusing back on the source of Christian hope.

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# My Jesus, my saviour... #

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# Talk to me, baby

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# I'm going blind from this sweet, sweet craving, whoa

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# Let's lose our minds and go for me, baby... #

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The world's greatest half-marathon,

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featuring double Olympic champion Mo Farah.

0:34:030:34:05

The Great North Run...

0:34:050:34:06

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