The other emergency service

LONDON BOMBINGS

After police, fire and ambulance, next on the scene at King?s Cross following the bombing were the clergy. They were working to a highly organised plan set up after the 1987 fire at the same station. So how did the faith groups react to their biggest challenge yet?

AFTER the fire that killed 31 people at King?s Cross station in London, 18 years ago, I felt that representatives of faith communities needed to take a fresh look at how they organised the pastoral care of people caught up in major disasters.

There was much debate and argument about how this should be done. But eventually an integrated system was put in place, and last Thursday proved its biggest test to date. I am glad to say it worked extremely well. The faith communities were there for those who needed them and people were dealt with professionally and pastorally.

It was a far cry from the response in 1987, when rubbish that had accumulated under one of the escalators at King?s Cross started a fire with devastating consequences. My church ? the Blessed Sacrament in Copenhagen Street ? is behind the station and, in the immediate aftermath, I offered support to the families of the bereaved and injured. Quickly, the church and parish hall next door became a focus for those who had been involved in the disaster. Parishioners rallied round to help, but there was no system to fall back on and a great deal of the responsibility for coordinating spiritual care fell to me.

The problem in those days was that there was no integrated system of response. Now the faith groups know exactly what to do. There is a system in place to arrange pastoral support which operates in parallel with the emergency services. The different levels are designated gold, silver and bronze. Gold represents the head office responsible for managing the emergency, and there is usually a representative of the faith communities present there. Those with the task of coordinating activities at the site of emergencies are known as silver chaplains and the individuals he or she calls in to help are known as bronze chaplains. Each silver chaplain has a list of priests, ministers and imams who are available. Last Thursday at King?s Cross there was a designated ?silver chaplain? from the Salvation Army who called in a representative of the relevant faith group to minister to any person who was in need.

Churches close to the explosions opened immediately. There are four priests in the Islington area of King?s Cross ? three Anglicans and myself. We met at 11 a.m. and, after assessing the situation, decided we would encourage those people who had not been injured to go home. We reasoned that any ongoing support could far more easily be given from their local churches. We also decided to open two of our churches ? the Blessed Sacrament and All Saints ? because they were on the walking routes from the station if people wanted to drop in.

Our parish hall is a designated emergency centre and is opened if there is a major local incident of any kind. There is a core group of individuals in the parish who step in when we are on call. They include the chairman of the parish council, the parish secretary and volunteers. Last week we also had a number of parishioners who phoned and emailed to say they would be available.

We were on standby for much of the day and I was also in touch with my Anglican colleagues and a local imam in case they were needed. At one stage we were asked whether we could care for children whose parents had not turned up to collect them from local schools, but in the end we were not required to set up the emergency centre.

Under the new system, priests from the nearest churches are those called on to work with people at the site of the emergency. The system also allows for local hotels to open their doors, where pastoral teams can offer support to survivors.

At King?s Cross, thousands of people sought shelter at the Quakers? Friends House in Euston Road, where they were able to use telephones and toilets and get refreshments. The Salvation Army?s Faith House, opposite King?s Cross station, was another oasis for travellers ? many in a state of shock ? and also for the emergency services.

We had a number of newcomers at Mass on Sunday and we extended a special welcome and a minute?s silence at the start of each Mass. I also announced that we could call on counsellors for anyone who needed them. I see my role primarily as one of listening people, and to pray with them and for anyone they wish. But I am not a trained counsellor and if it is counselling they need, they should get it from a professional. After the King?s Cross fire we were involved in setting up a team of local counsellors. They work for us free of charge for four hours and we pay for any extra time for which they are needed. They do not speak from a religious perspective and it is clearly understood that they are not working for the Church.

Just as helpful are families whose relatives have suffered death or injury in recent rail disasters and who are willing to listen and share their experiences. I got to know some of these after the King?s Cross fire. They are part of the emergency system and have received some training.

Of course, the major difference with the King?s Cross fire is that people in the recent tragedy are suffering the consequences of a deliberate act. It is right and proper that people should feel angry, but they need to be clear about where to place their anger. In the Catholic community, we have memories of that happening during the IRA bombings and the crude stereotyping of those with Irish accents. We should guard against a similar backlash against Muslims. At the same time, it is very difficult to know where to place that energy of anger. I ask people to pray for our enemies, and that perhaps is the starting point of bringing our anger in prayer before the Lord. The real call from the faith communities is not to allow anger to spill over into prejudice. God?s justice is the final retribution and we cannot determine what that justice should be.

In incidents like last Thursday?s bombings, there is a huge number of people who want to thank God for being spared. In the past few days, we have listened to far more people in the bus behind the one that blew up or the train that travelled earlier than the one hit by an explosion. In the King?s Cross fire we also dealt with a great many people who were not involved in the actual incident, but who were on the periphery and just had trouble travelling by Tube.

Some people suffer from guilt, too. The worst case I had after the King?s Cross fire was of a man who could not and would not believe that he had been spared. He spoke to psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, counsellors and eventually he was sent to us. I don?t think we succeeded either. He was just utterly convinced that he should have died that night.

The biggest group of people we see are those who are simply traumatised by what happened. Some are more affected than others. One man told me that he was sitting in the bus behind the one that exploded but seemed to take it in his stride. He said he had seen far worse in his home country of Sierra Leone. We have parishioners from many African countries that have experienced atrocities such as Rwanda, so that sentiment may well apply to others.

It is at times like this that people realise that they have a religious faith even if they don?t go regularly to church. Our task is to point them towards God. Last week, we had the joy of winning the Olympic bid, the first step towards the alleviation of poverty at the G8, then the bombings on Thursday and the commemoration of the Second World War on Sunday. Where can we find God?s voice in the midst of all that? I believe, if you consider all these things, that God is talking about peace. The Olympics and the G8 are about bringing peace to people. If you talk to anyone involved in the commemoration of the Second World War, they will tell you that war solves nothing. Our response to the terrorists? attacks is that what we genuinely want is peace, we will do all we can to achieve it and that is what will stop these people.

At the Blessed Sacrament parish, we are welcoming and culturally diverse. It is an inclusive parish and we make people feel comfortable. It is something we have worked hard at. We appreciate each other and the gifts people bring. On Saturday, we held our summer fair. We had a lengthy discussion on Friday morning about whether it should go ahead, but we decided that, if we cancelled, the terrorists would have won. About 2,000 people came and it was a wonderful day. The lesson for me from the King?s Cross fire is that we need to be together as faith communities. We need to share the buildings we own and we have got to find a way of expressing God?s love and concern to people. I believe we did that last Thursday.

Fr Jim Kennedy is parish priest at the Blessed Sacrament Church, near King?s Cross. He was talking to Elena Curti.