Interfaith Prayer Service

Job's words from the Old Testament unite Christian, Jew and Muslim in grief and hope, being one of the most ancient meditations on the mystery of evil and suffering, especially the suffering of the innocent.

We can work no miracle to roll back or destroy those horror videos of New York, Washington and Philadelphia. We have no balm to heal quickly those wounds which will last a lifetime.

But people of all religions, and sometimes those of no religion, pray when there is trouble. We ask God to convert the spiritual energy generated by our prayers to give strength and consolation to the family and friends of the victims.And we pray that those who died will be purged, cleansed of their sins, even the cruel zealots who caused these catastrophes.

Tonight we also gather in hope, determined that this insane language of violence will not prevail. We too believe, like our sisters and brothers across the Pacific, that all persons have inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that these rights will not be snuffed out with lives of these victims.

More people have died in other tragedies, in the Holocaust, in Soviet prison camps, in Pol Pot's Cambodia, but we watched this succession of blows. In a real sense we were there too and knew it was an attack on our way of life, our cherished traditions and a violent threat to the future peace of our childrenMore Australians died in these catastrophes than in the Port Arthur massacre. We also know that the full tale is not yet told; we cannot be sure all other attacks will be detected and prevented.

All of us are now called to ensure these distant events do not exacerbate racial and religious tensions in Australia, in Sydney.These are not bitter and deep by world standards, but they are to be reduced not exploited. We need to pull together, without exception. It is unjust to scapegoat the local Islamic community, because they too reject these murders.

Let us now pray for the victims. We pray for those who mourn their loved ones; may they be comforted. We remember the leaders of the Free World. May they be wise and strong in the pursuit of justice, so that the fanatics working for a spiral of hate and violence are disappointed.

And finally may the one true God, the Almighty, Merciful and Compassionate Lord of creation and history, to whom we all belong, save us from worse times ahead and bring us back to peace.

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