Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has laid flowers at the scene of the Bondi massacre as Sydney Anglicans express sorrow at the death of 15 people and injuries to 25 others in a terrorist attack at a Hanukkah festival.
The Archbishop will join other faith leaders at a public memorial on Wednesday night.
"Grief was palpable at the memorial site in Bondi,” the Archbishop said. “But as I watched, prayed and spoke with some of those present I was struck by the kindness of strangers, the songs for peace and the gentle determination to drive away darkness with light - symbolised in the Hanukkah candles."
The Archbishop also visited Bondi Anglican Church, which has been dealing with shocked and traumatised locals since Sunday night.
The beach church, near the scene of the attack, was open until 2 am on Monday morning and since then has been serving refreshments, having conversations, and offering prayer to local residents.
“We had lots and lots of people walk in, Jewish people, secular, not Christians, whatever, and just talk and pray with our team and the key volunteers here,” said the Rev Martin Morgan, senior minister at Bondi.
A planned Lessons and Carols service at the Waverley site turned into a prayer service.
He is with us in our sadness, He is with us in our gladness. When people sang that there were many trembling voices ..
“We lit the second Hanukkah candle at the beginning of the service with some Messianic Jewish people, friends of ours. They said the Hanukkah prayer and also thanked the Lord for the fulfillment of light in Jesus. They closed it with the Aaronic blessing in Hebrew and English.”
Remembering the victims
Churches have been urged to hold one minute's silence on Sunday for the victims of the massacre.
“We held one minute's silence at our carols service,” Mr Morgan said. “Quite a few people were crying by the end of the minute. We then sang the first carol, Once in Royal David’s City. It says "He is with us in our sadness, He is with us in our gladness”. When people sang that there were many trembling voices because it was pretty powerful. That encapsulates a little bit of what people are feeling.”
The church is being used as a base for a team of volunteer chaplains flown in by Billy Graham’s organisation and local Anglican churches have also rallied to help.
Mr Morgan described visiting the mourning site at Bondi Pavillion with other Anglican ministers from the eastern suburbs. “We were all in our clergy collars and we spread out and just walked through the crowd. Jewish rabbis came and hugged us, grabbed us, shook our hands and said thank you for your support.”
The classic words associated with Christmas aren't ironic to them. They're exactly what we need at this time.
Assistant minister Matt Graham was interviewed by the ABC and declared that in the face of violence and constant antisemitic graffiti, they stood with the Jewish people in the local community.
Public memorial service
Archbishop Raffel will join faith leaders (pictured above) at 7:15pm on Wednesday night on the forecourt in front of St Mary's Cathedral. The Prime Minister and Premier will be speaking at the memorial gathering. The public is invited.
For the congregation at Bondi Anglican, Christmas has been clouded by evil in their own suburb.
“One congregation member said to me, It's so dark and so chaotic, but it highlights the light of the gospel and it makes me follow Jesus because he brings order into chaos,” Mr Morgan said.
“Light is a big thing because of Hanukkah and there's lots of candles everywhere. Coming up to Christmas, that's a very common response (among congregation members), the tension between darkness and light and evil and and God's goodness. You know, the classic words associated with Christmas aren't ironic to them. They're exactly what we need at this time.”
