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Secretary-General attends tsunami service

27 January 2005

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon read two poems written by children at a multi-faith prayer service at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, UK, on 26 January 2005 in honour of the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, where more than 280,000 people are confirmed dead or missing.

Secretary-General Don McKinnon at the prayer service for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

"The houses are wrecked. Most of the people have fled. I am the only one left. I walk in this world thinking of old times. Of jolly times. But that is past. I now have to walk towards the future," recited the Secretary-General.

Mr McKinnon also shared the wish of another budding poet who wondered if hope might arise from the tragedy. "Is it one world at last that can reach out with open arms, like another wave, rising and spreading from all our hearts?"

The Secretary-General concluded with a poem by the 19th century poet Emily Dickinson: "How will they tell the shipwreck, when winter shakes the door. Till the children ask, 'But the forty? Did they come back no more?' Then a silence suffuses the story. And a softness the teller's eye. And the children no further question. And only the waves reply."

The solemn hour-long service involved religious leaders of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu faiths. It was attended by about 100 people including the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Catherine Longworth, members of the diplomatic community and the public.

The Lord Mayor said: "It is hard to know how to respond to a scale of disaster of such magnitude. Our gathering here is to reflect deeply on the tragedy that has touched us all and to affirm our feeling of sympathy and commitment to support those lives that have been affected."

 

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 219 26 January 2005