Victims of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack have been honoured at Southwark Cathedral which has established a Chapel of Reconciliation.
On June 3, 2017, three terrorists ploughed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, before knifing innocents in Borough market, killing eight people.
At a service commemorating the dead, on Sunday, December 4, the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, dedicated the St Francis and St Elizabeth Chapel with its new name.
Bishop Christopher, who also commemorated recently stabbed south London teens Kearne Solanke and Charlie Bartolo, said: “This we do through seeking to heal the wounds of violent crime, through learning to live with difference and to celebrate diversity, seeking to build a culture of peace.”
Charlie Bartrolo and Kearne Solanke died after being found with stab wounds in Abbey Wood and Greenwich respectively on Saturday, November 26.
To signal its consecration, the chapel received a large cross of nails – a Christian symbol of peace since World War II.
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The cross of nails dates back to November 1940, when Coventry Cathedral was damaged during the Coventry Blitz.
Rev Arthur Philip Wales retrieved several large hand-forged medieval carpenters nails from the wreckage, and fashioned a Latin cross from them.
By receiving a cross of nails, Southwark Cathedral joins the ‘Community of the Cross of Nails’ of which there are over 200 member organisations.
In his homily, Bishop Christopher said: “We do so with great sadness and heavy hearts because not only do we bear the scars of the London Bridge Terror Attack more than five years ago, remembering those who perished, those who endured life-changing injuries, those who were traumatised along with their families, colleagues and friends.
“But we do so with renewed sorrow because only last week two more young people from South London, Kearne Solanke and Charlie Bartolo, became themselves tragic victims of knife crime – and we pray for them and their families in their devastating loss and grief.”