Welby warns of darkness at heart of terror attack
THE Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday warned that darkness is a “monster that lies”, as he referred to the recent London Bridge terror attack.
In his annual Christmas sermon, Justin Welby told worshippers gathered at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent that we could all see the shadows of evil.
And making particular reference to last month’s terror attack in the capital that left two victims dead, he said: “Darkness is a monster that lies. Its growling claims seem to call out with a louder volume than the love-filled whispers of the light.
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“We see the shadows out of the corner of our eyes. They may be violence as in the Congo or on London Bridge.”
He added: “Whether solid or illusion, they are the reality with which we live, if we believe the dark.
“The closer we get to the light the more our imperfections are revealed”.
Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed to death in a terror attack near London Bridge last month. The man who carried out the attack, Usman Khan, was shot dead by police.
During his annual Christmas Day Eucharist service, the archbishop also spoke about a recent visit to the city of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there has been the second worst outbreak of the Ebola virus. He said about 3,000 people had died.
Meanwhile, in his homily on Christmas Eve, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said that after “so much bitter political discourse and division” we “are to look one another in the eye and see there all that is good”.
Cardinal Nichols encouraged worshippers during Midnight Mass at Westminster Cathedral to find “the goodness of God in every person”.
He added: “Only then will our society become a place in which no-one is afraid and all sense a welcome. This is the fresh start we need.”