CHURCH RESPONSE:AN UNPRECEDENTED meeting between leaders of the three main Protestant churches in Ireland and the families of those who died on Bloody Sunday will take place in Derry this morning.
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry Raphoe Ken Good, the Presbyterian Moderator Dr Norman Hamilton and the President of the Methodist Church Rev Paul Kingston will meet family members concerned at the Bloody Sunday Memorial in Rossville Street at 10.30 this morning. The three church leaders will make a presentation to the families.
In an initial response to the Saville report yesterday Bishop Good said it “presents the people of this city and community with a significant opportunity for growth in how we understand our shared history as well as an opportunity for further healing of our community relationships”.
He said “the ways in which people on different sides of the community have viewed the events of Bloody Sunday, and have interpreted their significance, has been a source of pain and tension over the past three decades. The publication of this report now presents us with the possibility of some healing of those differences.”
Having met families of the men killed he felt it important they knew “that I, as a pastor, have heard how let down they feel by the way in which events were handled . . . and why it is so important for them now that the official historical record shows that a grave injustice was done to their loved ones and to their families”.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishop of Derry Séamus Hegarty has welcomed publication of the report “and the unequivocal and strong language used in it to confirm the innocence of the victims”.
Bishop Hegarty said he was struck by the “sheer dignity” and “palpable relief that the long wait was now over” where victims’ families were concerned. “Two key words came across again and again: ‘innocence and justice’. May God bless the relatives and friends of the victims. Today is their day and it is a very significant day for the people of Derry,” he said.
He paid tribute “to the many people who were on the ground caring for the victims on that dark day and who did so at considerable risk to their own safety”.