Use your anger as a force for good, Archbishop urges campaigners

THOSE WHO are angry in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire should harness that energy to work towards justice and reconciliation, the Archbishop of York has said at a service honouring five victims of the disaster.

Echoing the words of Nelson Mandela following his release from prison, Dr John Sentamu urged people to unite as a community in a bid to get to the truth of what happened in the disaster six weeks ago. Recalling the words he said: “I understand your anger. May I plead with you, anger is energy, you can either destroy or build. Use your anger for creativity, together as a community, come together and nobody will destroy you.” Dr Sentamu added: “All of the stones, all of the tiny things, like a grain of sand, must be turned in order to discover the truth. “Because truth sets all of us free. And when truth is discovered then the possibility for justice can be there and the possibility for reconciliation.”

He addressed a congregation in north Kensington, little more than half a mile from the scene, at a service for family and friends of five of those killed to gather and remember their loved ones.

The lives of artist Khadija Saye, her mother Mary Mendy, Berkti Haftom and her 12-year-old son Beruk, as well as five-year-old Isaac Paulos, were being celebrated at the ecumenical service in St Helen’s Church.

Shortly before playing a drum lament, Dr Sentamu urged people to be unified in the call for justice.

He said he is praying the deaths were not “in vain” and instead there can be a time now of “freedom, of liberty, of understanding and mutually encouraging one another”.

Yesterday’s service opened with a recording of Michael Jackson’s Heal The World, and the Gospel For Grenfell choir later sang a number of well-known songs including Something Inside So Strong.

The families later left the service to a recording of Michael Jackson’s You Are Not Alone.