The Bishop’s Response to the Bombing in London
July 7, 2005

Terror.

The word has a different order of magnitude than other trials and tragedies visited upon us. Terror is distinctive to our species because of our capacity to know foreboding and to foresee ourselves and others into a cold desperation.

Today 'terror' was London's word as yesterday it was 'victory' in the jubilation in winning the 2012 Olympic bid. Both were public seizures, so to speak - one long desired as possibility, the other dreaded (but momentarily forgotten) as possibility.

Still, all terror is personal even if contagious and public. Personhood confers its own boundaries and it is also personhood that makes the difference between being terrified and being terrorized. Floods and earthquakes terrify; blasting people in high rise buildings and bombing them in underground trains terrorize. People - human beings - terrorize with intent, skill and planning.

What can we say to that? Only, and again and again, "God have mercy. God have mercy on us all."

Faithfully,

Carolyn Tanner Irish

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