Lines of people were still flowing in to cram Southwark Cathedral to overflowing as the Bishop of Southwark began a special Requiem Eucharist today for all those who died in the United States terrorist strike, as well as for the injured, the bereaved and all the people of the USA.

Canon George Brandt of St Michael's Church, West Side, Manhattan, read the gospel, and Joan McIver, President of the Harvard Club of the UK, led the prayers of intercession and lit a large candle of remembrance, flanked by the Stars and Stripes. John Harvard, the founder of Harvard University, was born in Southwark and the Cathedral has a chapel named after him.

The Mayor of Southwark, Cllr Hilary Wines read the first lesson, and the MPs Simon Hughes, Harriet Harman and Tessa Jowell were in the congregation.

The Dean, the Very Rev Colin Slee spoke in his sermon of Tuesday's act as "the largest single attack ever affecting the United Kingdom, the tragedy is a shared violation." He pleaded for restraint in our reactions. "The words 'hunt them down' … trouble me. Another phrase, 'mindless terrorism' worries me a great deal. Tuesday showed us that we are not dealing with mindless people at all but with intelligent, careful, precise and highly organized people. We need to remember that if, as suggested, this act was planned by Osama bin Laden hiding somewhere in Afghanistan then we taught him to fight, we equipped him and we encouraged him. If the dog has bitten the hand that fed it - perhaps we should not have trained it this way at all in the first place." "War is created by desperation and deprivation as frequently as it is caused by greed and evil intent. … The Gospel requires that we seek true wisdom when we try to bring Tuesday's perpetrators to justice."

Full text of sermon

More about the service

Also:

• Text of sermon preached by Revd Canon Stephen Roberts at Southwark Cathedral on the morning of Sunday 16 September

• Text of sermon preached by the Bishop of Southwark at Southwark Cathedral on the afternoon of Sunday 16 September

Ends.

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