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Available for over a year

Old news is no news. The strongest story, unless it personally affects us, is only as newsworthy as its latest, freshest development. A year ago, I stood here in Albert Square. A barrage of cameras and microphones pointed towards a platform hastily erected in front of the Town Hall. From that spot we addressed the people of this city, and far beyond. We spoke about the terrorist attack that had claimed many lives, and harmed so many more, in our midst. We acknowledged our grief and our anger. We began to find ways to respond well, to show our love and our defiance. The cameras departed and the story moved on. The media have come back several times since, though not in such great numbers. They have questioned how our emergency services responded. Were there failures in surveillance and security before the attack? They’ve asked how this attack fits within the patterns of modern terrorism. What lessons can be learned for the future? Anniversaries like today matter because they invite us back to the beginning. They give us space to reflect on the most important aspects of the matter, not just the most recent. Today is not a time to seek out some fresh development. Today is about the friends and relatives of the 22 who lost their lives. Today is about the 800 or so others who bear the physical marks and mental scars of what happened a year ago. As a priest, and then bishop, I have seen too many times how the immediate, and even overwhelming, sympathy and support, for those who have faced tragedy, soon falters. We, and the world's attention, move on. But they will live the rest of their lives with the consequences of one horrific moment. That can naturally leave them feeling isolated. Guilty, even, that they are not making a speedy enough mental and physical recovery. Yet I, and countless other Christians, along with believers in other world faiths, hold fast to a God who never loses interest. My bible speaks of his constancy and faithfulness, even when we are fickle. My faith assures me that God's heart grieves for the victims of the Manchester bomb as much this morning as it did last year. Today is a moment for all who cared enough to watch and listen to the news from Manchester twelve months ago, to bring the victims back to the centres of our hearts and minds. God doesn't need their stories to change. God doesn’t require them to get over it, in order to go on loving and caring for them. God doesn't demand they recover according to some timetable to suit his attention span. Nor should we.