Church leaders concern name to face towards violence after Southport stabbings

Church leaders from completely different denominations and traditions have issued a joint assertion expressing their “shock, unhappiness and horror” at a lethal knife assault on a kids’s dance class on Monday. 

The tragedy on the Taylor Swift-themed class in Southport, outdoors Liverpool, claimed the lives of three kids, Bebe King aged six, 7-year-old Elsie Stancombe, and 9-year-old Alice Aguiar. Another eight kids had been injured, 5 critically. A 17-year-old boy is being held on suspicion of homicide and tried homicide. 

The Church leaders stated they had been holding all these affected by the “horrific” assault of their prayers, and referred to as on “individuals of all faiths and none to come back collectively to assist them in no matter manner we are able to”. 

“Life is a treasured present, and for it to be taken from kids so younger is really heartbreaking,” they stated.

“We provide our honest condolences to the households and family members of all of these whose lives have been misplaced. We pray for many who stay critically ailing and injured.”

They added, “We commit ourselves afresh to standing towards brutality and violence in each kind and doing all we are able to to construct secure, caring and robust communities.” 

Signatories of the letter embrace the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, Dr John Perumbalath, the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Most Rev Malcolm McMahon, Chair of the Liverpool Methodist District, Dr Sheryl Anderson, and Regional Minister of the North West Baptist Association, Rev Phil Jump. 

They have launched a particular prayer for Southport: 

Gracious God,
Words alone can not specific our unhappiness and disbelief
Our heartbreak and anguish
When such treasured lives are so brutally stolen.
We provide to you the cries of our personal hearts
And pray for these households whose grief and loss
Is not possible to grasp.

Help us all to cling to hope
Even amidst this mindless brutality.
Be near all whose lives have been so cruelly scarred;
Surround them along with your love;
Hold them quick of their sorrow,
And grant them power amidst their insufferable ache.

We can not escape our anger and devastation,
But select to hunt hope even amidst this darkness.
For all its horror, might it spur us much more
To by no means give up to despair,
But construct a world the place peace, hope and love prevail.

AMEN