and Red Wednesday really was a powerful experience...

...in London, with great public buildings buildings (notably the Foreign and Commonwealth Office  in Whitehall ), lit up, and a kilted piper  playing a lament leading a procession up the aisle of Westminster Cathedral  with a great heavy wooden Cross carried by a team from Aid to the Church in Need.  Govt spokesman noted that 80 per cent of the people in the world being persecuted for their faith are Christians..  The prayers and messages also reflected the importance of religious freedom for all.  A powerful speech from a leading Jewish spokesman, who as a child was one of the last Jews in Baghdad, forced with his family to leave a city where a large Jewish community had thrived for centuries along with people of other religions and none...

The Cathedral was packed, and there was  music from the Schola of the Cardinal Vaughan School, and from pupils from St John Bosco Academy...and prayers and readings....and more...and a final Blessing given by Fr Dominic, chaplain to ACN... an evening to remember.

Reports here...and here...