Kanishka on love in the face of terror at Bondi - Kanishka Raffel, Martin Morgan and Ben Pakula

Archbishop Kanishka on the terror attack at Bondi - Kanishka Raffel, Martin Morgan and Ben Pakula

Sydney’s Anglican Archbishop Kanishka Raffel calls on Sydney to embrace our Jewish neighbours in love, friendship and support and to reject antisemitism, violence and hatred.

Archbishop Raffel says this is the way of Jesus.

Minister of Bondi Anglican Martin Morgan says they sheltered people in the church last night, who were terrified,  running for their lives.

In a The Pastor’s Heart special, Archbishop Raffel is joined by minister of Bondi Anglican Church Martin Morgan and Messianic Jew Ben Pakula (also an Anglican Minister) in praying for those family and friends and the Bondi community, impacted by the gunman opening fire - leaving 16 dead including a 10 year old girl.

http://thepastorsheart.net/podcast/love-in-the-face-of-terror-raffel-morgan-pakula

Suggested Prayers :-

Prayers prepared by St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney for those affected by the shooting at Bondi Beach, 14/12/25

For the bereaved and injured
Heavenly Father, God of all comfort, deal graciously with those who grieve in this time of deep sadness. We pray especially for family and friends of those who have been shot. Grant them strength and peace in the days ahead. We pray with a spirit of compassion and grace for the Jewish and broader Bondi community, as they come to terms with their grief and shock. We ask you, Gracious Lord, to heal and restore all those who are still recovering in hospital. Be with them and their families as they travel the road to recovery. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

For the first responders
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son was acquainted with grief and carried our sorrows: Thank you for those who, courageously following in his steps, willingly entered into the trauma of recent events on our behalf – civilians responders, the police, ambulance officers and other emergency medical personnel. We pray also for the police responsible for investigating the circumstances around these crimes. In your tender mercy, grant diligence and protection in their tasks, and rest to their bodies, healing to their minds, and peace to their hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

For the community around Bondi Beach
Our dear Heavenly Father, hear our prayers for the men, women and children, who live and work in or near Bondi Beach and the surrounding areas. We present the needs of residents, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, staff, customers, and visitors to the area. You know them. You know every hair on their heads. We call on you to protect and heal. Allow a healthy process as people respond to these harrowing acts of violence. Thank you, Lord, for the courage and kindness of the people who helped each other on Sunday. May that spirit of kindness continue through your empowering, Lord. As people face anxiety, trauma, and grief, provide comfort, resilience, peace, and safety. Grant wisdom to community leaders and help us know you are a good, gracious God. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

For the wider community of Sydney Anglicans

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Purpose
• 1:45 Eyewitness At Bondi Church
• 5:54 Lockdown, Prayer, And Shelter
• 9:49 Archbishop’s Immediate Response
• 12:32 Faith Leaders Unite Against Antisemitism
• 18:46 A Jewish Christian’s Reflections
• 22:47 Community Care And Pastoral Support

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 1:06

It is the Pastor's Heart, embracing our Jewish neighbours in love, friendship and support, rejecting anti-Semitism, violence and hatred. That is the way of Jesus, says the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffle. We are joined in a Pastor's Heart special by the Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka, but also the minister of Bondi Anglican Church, Martin Morgan, and Ben Pakula, an Anglican minister from Sydney, but who is also a Jew who has come to trust in the Jewish Messiah. It is less than twenty hours since two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach. Martin Morgan was just a few hundred metres away, leaving the church building when the shooting happened and people started running past. Let's go first to Martin. And Martin, take us through the last 20 hours for you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:58

As you said, um we just finished our church service. It was a lovely church service, and um we were distributing some hampers to neighbours in the immediate area around the church. So uh a group of 20 or so people grabbed some hampers and walking into um different homes, knocking on doors, having discussions, talking to them, and we'd just come back, and and some of us were still coming back when we heard um some rapid noises that sounded like fireworks, and we were convinced it was fireworks. Like that. And uh didn't think much of it. So we came into the church building, we were talking in the foyer and uh chatting about the sermon, about the interactions we've just had with um some of the people we've met in the street. And in that context, um one lady dressed in formal wear with her sh holding her shoes, ran up the street. And we thought that's and ran right past us. And we thought it's a bit strange. But then we looked, and there were about 50 to 70 people just running up Warrow Avenue, which is where the church is uh based, and our front door opens right onto it, right onto the street. So the footpath and the church people were just looking at each other. We thought at first, I thought at first, and a few people also thought they were laughing as they were running, and we thought, oh, they're reveling and celebrating. Interesting, but but then we realized now they were crying, and then they started a few of them started saying, Get inside, get inside. There's someone with a gun. And so uh we realized this was serious, and so we said come in, and so we welcomed some of those people who were running past into the church building, which as I said is directly onto the street. We came into the s in inside, um, and uh people are looking on social media, not finding anything, so we didn't know anything. And I think we heard a few more noises that were were now turned out to be um shots. Like that. And so we closed the door and we had um a few visitors we didn't know who were with us, and we welcomed a few other people in who knocked on the door and let them in, and we had a prayer meeting. We just prayed, um, not knowing very much at all. Uh and we stayed in that in that sort of huddle in the church building away from the any windows, uh, and started hearing helicopters and many, many, many sirens, police vehicles, ambulances, um, helicopters, and so we realized this is big. This this this is really big. And in that context, some of the people who were there started sharing stories about seeing people lying with their faces in the ash belt and obviously not good uh and blood and and these sorts of things. So it it dawned on us a little bit what was happening, and then some people started getting um Instagram and social media things which highlighted the fact that we we were dealing with something pretty big that shaped our prayers in that context. Uh and um some of us went out into the street because a few neighbors uh in the immediate um vicinity of the church were were worried and concerned, so we went out to try and talk to them and help them. A few of our church members live on the street also, and so we helped direct traffic away from going down because people are still going to the beach and this sort of thing, not not aware what was happening. And so there was a little we were helping redirect things a little bit. Um but the prayer went well. There were a few people in panic and teary in in the in the church building as we heard more and more information. It was a little d drip feeding of information. That's how it happened initially. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 5:32

Kanishka, what was your experience last night?

SPEAKER_03: 5:35

Uh I got a text um saying something's happened. We turned the television on uh about quarter to seven. We were at home, Kaylee and I were at home, um, and uh we couldn't believe our eyes. Um we uh immediately prayed, um and uh and then we just waited really and watched things unfold uh on the television. I uh later on in the evening I contacted uh Martin. I uh spoke to the Dean, Sandy Grant, to just to say to keep the cathedral open today, uh and there'll be um a special special evening prayer service this evening um and uh to prepare prayer materials for people to use through the day. Uh I spoke to our Anglican primate, um Mark Short, uh who rang me um and uh to express his support for us as we um responded to uh along with everybody else in the community what was going on. Um I'm especially grateful actually for Bondi Anglican and uh just for the way that they um responded uh in as helpful a way as they could to it to anybody who who needed that help. And I know the church was open, I think, until past midnight, uh, as people were um coming in there and debriefing and having cups of coffee and uh being encouraged having prayers for them. Um I mean, it's just horrific. Uh uh this morning I met with some of the Jewish community leaders and other faith leaders as well. Uh and you know, there are a couple of themes. Um one is that for the Jewish community, the last two years at least has been a constant experience of uh anti-Semitic attacks um in uh in in in um a whole variety of ways, some institutional, many personal. Uh we we remember the graffiti and so on, and uh public uh demonstrations in which really terrible things have been said, uh insightful and hateful things. Um so it's really crucial uh at this moment, and that is why this faith leaders meeting was happening this morning. So it was a scheduled meeting. Uh no, no, no. It was called at short notice. Yeah. Uh and uh I can't. And everyone turned up. Everybody turned up, uh called by the uh Minister for Multiculturalism, Steve Camper, uh, and held in the uh parliament um parliamentary offices. Everybody did turn up. Um and uh um that was important uh because we need to say that we are all openly committed to the welfare and safety of the Jewish community. That this kind of attack and the kind of anti-Semitism that we've seen over the last two years is utterly unacceptable to us as as an Australian community. Um the Jewish community belong, uh we love them, we want to stand with them, we want to support them, and we don't want to give any uh um uh any room uh to this kind of hateful violence aimed at the Jewish community in Sydney.

SPEAKER_04: 8:49

Ben Pakula, uh tell us about the evening as it unfolded for you.

SPEAKER_00: 8:53

Yeah, um it so happens I'm just started a week of uh annual leave, and so I'm down enjoying myself uh at a little beach holiday place called Brow Lee, and um a dear brother from uh the evening congregation where I pastor uh messaged me and thankfully got through because reception's not real good, and said, Hey mate, just uh wanted to make sure that you weren't there at Bondai. And I thought, what's he talking about? And um, of course, as it unfolded, I discovered what happened, and uh then I thought, well, I better let my church know that no, I wasn't there in Bondi on uh on uh annual leave down the down the coast. And uh then I got bombarded with messages not only from people from church but all over the place, uh being very kind and positive, praying for you, for the Jewish people, etc. Uh one of the first things I did once I'd worked out what had happened was um get on uh a chat with my own extended family and make sure that they were all okay, uh, which they appreciated the reach out. And uh it so happens uh like I do have um there are family members of mine that live uh in Mondo and who celebrate Hanukkah. Uh it so happens they they weren't there, uh thankfully. Um although some of the deceased are known to members of my extended family. And uh to be honest, I find it difficult to know how to respond. I know that that might sound strange, but I I I I it took me quite a long time to get to sleep last night, and I'm not sure I've worked out why. Uh I wonder if there's a sort of an element of of of uh understandable shock uh that that uh that I suppose is normal to experience uh when when you hear stuff like this. Uh and I I say shock, but I don't say surprise. I've actually thought that there's a great likelihood that something like this uh would yeah almost certainly come about. So uh shock, yes, but not not that I think I didn't expect this. I I did expect something like this, really. Uh I'm very sad to say.

SPEAKER_04: 11:00

Martin, what's played out for you? Uh I mean, as Kanishka said, you went to bed very late last night and probably didn't sleep well.

SPEAKER_01: 11:07

I don't I don't think I slept well, no. Um uh my the ministry team, the staff team have have been um very actively engaging with locals, people from within our congregation uh who were there, and just today um we've discovered many of the people who didn't come to deliver the hampers were actually down there. Had already walked down to the beach and were at restaurants or at the beach or whatever. And quite a few right now in the um Bondi Beach Church, um they're still meeting and praying and uh they're comforting each other. And there's stories I haven't got the details, but there's stories of people holding people who who'd been shot and talking to them. Members of your church. Yeah, right. And um word's gone out, it is a it's a fairly close sort of grapevine or whatever in North Bondi and Bondo Beach there. And so we're having people come into that building. Um, both of our church buildings, the St. Mary's up at Bondo Junction or Waverley, and um the um beach uh church site on on Warrow are just really close to where it was. They've been open today, and people have been coming in just quietly. Um many people we don't know having a little bit of a cry, having a little prayer. We've got little verses that they're reading. Um I've talked to a few of them up at uh Bondo Junction, that's where I was based this morning. Some of them have lit candles, um, just expressing something, grief, concern, prayers. But down at the beach, um, there's quite a few people who are gathering with my staff there, and um uh some of the Jewish community have have come too and and have have uh appreciated the support. I wasn't involved in those conversations because up there, but um Matt Graham, who's my um assistant minister, um and he's the pastor of the um church down there, has fielded quite a few questions from community and from media groups, and um he's uh he's coordinating uh sort of a pastoral response, I guess, to the people there. Offering cups of tea, um solace, just a place to sit. It's a quite a nice spot to come in off the busy street after an event like this and just uh sit and you know try and centre um your thoughts. So that's ongoing. That's ongoing. There's a um pastors, an Anglican um uh deanery meeting group. We're meeting at four o'clock this afternoon, uh, and that's been thrown open to other pastors too, and it looks like that's gonna be uh uh quite a significant time of prayer um down at the beachside. And tonight we've got a existing planned um nine lessons and carols um service, which is more formal with organ and and stuff, but it was written after the First World War. That that liturgy was uh promoted to offer light um in the context of a bleak time. A very bleak time. And so we're gonna continue with that, but uh make sure it's appropriate with um uh where we are at the moment in the context. Yeah. Kanishka?

SPEAKER_03: 14:05

Um this morning uh some of the Jewish community leaders were saying um you know, it it's Hanukkah, it's the festival of light. Um if you want to express your support, light a candle for Hanukkah.

unknown: 14:18

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03: 14:18

Um do an act of kindness, do an act of charity. Uh and I thought that was a lovely thing for them to say in this moment of grief, uh a way of giving the community at large uh a way of expressing that support. Um and I think that's going to continue to be uh very, very significant uh in in the weeks that come. And I think you know, for those uh who have Jewish colleagues, uh neighbors, friends, um reach out to them. Uh say it out loud. You matter. You matter to me, you matter to God. We're so sorry that you're experiencing this terrible event and we want to stand alongside you. Uh because I've heard from Jewish friends over the last couple of years that they felt tremendously alone. Uh and uh it doesn't take um much uh to say to say to somebody, we care about you, and we're standing alongside with you. I think Ben is keen to get in. Ben, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:23

Here, here, dear brother, thank you. Um uh I I've personally have been the recipient of people doing exactly what uh Kanisha has just said, and I think it's really wonderful. Uh and I think this is a a a positive from this. Feels a bit wrong to speak for a positive, but a positive from this is that, well, there are wonderful inroads to be made with uh the the Jews that that that we rightly want to love uh by just saying, yeah, I think what happens uh what what's been happening is is atrocious. And uh I want you to know we we love you, we appreciate you, uh that that kind of thing. I I think that that yeah, that that that speaks volumes.

SPEAKER_04: 16:03

Ben, can you just explain to us because there'll be people here listening um who don't know what Hanukkah is about?

SPEAKER_00: 16:10

Oh uh yeah, Hanukkah, uh literally the festival of lights. Uh it's um it began in the inter-testamental period where um uh I'm gonna get my history wrong here. Might have been Antiochus, Epiphanes the Third or someone after him. The Seleucids uh attacked and conquered uh Jerusalem. And unlike Alexander the Great, they were a bit more insistent on the Jews uh rejecting their own culture and heritage and embracing the culture and heritage uh of uh their their conquerors, and there are a number of uh Jewish zealots who wanted to hold uh to their tradition, their roots, their language. A famous family uh known as the Maccabees uh were amongst those zealots, and they uh through guerrilla warfare, from what I can work out, actually reclaimed the temple uh which had been ransacked. And in order to uphold the kind of positivity around Jewish zeal and nationalism, uh a story circulated, and and I think it's a myth, just like it's you know, Santa Claus and the Easter money kind of thing, that when when the the temple was reclaimed, there was only enough oil to burn in the lampstand for one night, but miraculously, as a sign from God about the goodness of Jewish zeal, the the oil burned for eight nights. Um and that's why Hanukkah is a festival that goes for eight nights of of lighting candles as I guess a celebration of uh Jewish independence and identity. And I think it is referred to in the New Testament where Jesus uh calls himself the the true light of the world at at the festival, and I think that's uh uh the festival of of Hanukkah.

SPEAKER_04: 18:25

So where does that leave you as a a Jew who's become a Christian in terms of celebrating Hanukkah?

SPEAKER_00: 18:32

Yeah, I have celebrated Hanukkah with my family, and I'm more than happy to do so. As a follower of Jesus, uh I am free to uh uphold Jewish customs or not uphold Jewish customs. Obviously, I'm not free to uphold things uh that compromise faith or obedience to Jesus. Uh for example, some of the brachas or the prayers uh include things that aren't biblical, like we thank you, God, who commanded us to light the lights of Shabbat, for example, and I won't say amen to that, but I I want to embrace as much of uh the the heritage of Israel because, well, frankly, the God I worship is a Jewish man, and uh I got no problem doing that. And I have no problem not doing it either. I think it's uh uh one of the wonderful things about knowing Jesus, Lord, is we have freedom in Christ.

SPEAKER_04: 19:25

So Kanishka, I was invited to a Hanukkah thing on Thursday night, and the invitation that I got said that you were going.

SPEAKER_03: 19:32

Yes, yes. I was also invited to uh Hanukkah um celebration at the Great Synagogue. Uh to tell you the truth, I'll make I'm waiting to hear if it's been cancelled. I I don't know what its status is now.

SPEAKER_04: 19:43

Right, right, yeah. Um, but it sounded like an opportunity to ex a particular I mean, well, uh originally it would have been planned to celebrate Hanukkah, but as they were inviting people like you and me to go, I thought, ah, this could be an opportunity to express support and express solidarity.

SPEAKER_03: 20:02

Indeed, indeed. And uh partly um I think I was invited um uh because we've made some statements uh over the over the last couple of years, uh, and I think uh they invited me to address them briefly uh and to read um a psalm.

SPEAKER_04: 20:17

What we might do is if it's all right, is we might just pray for the Jewish community in Bondi. And I mean all of us have got different aspects, but why don't you start?

SPEAKER_03: 20:25

Sure, yeah, yeah. Uh gracious God and loving Heavenly Father, we uh come to you really with broken hearts over the terrible things that have happened in Sydney overnight. We want to pray especially for the Jewish community in Sydney in grief, in shock, uh frightened. Uh Father, would you um comfort, uh draw near, set your angels uh around the Jewish community in our city? Would you keep them safe? Um give them your peace. And would you help us, Father, uh Australians of good will and uh Christians especially, Father, would you help us uh to be uh present, uh to be vocal in support and to demonstrate love and care towards our Jewish neighbors and friends. Uh Father, we pray for peace in this city. We pray for all those who've been impacted by these events as they've watched them unfold uh on our television screen. We pray especially for the grieving, uh, for those who are being treated in hospital. Father, we need your help, and so we ask for these mercies in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_01: 21:39

Amen. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for uh the fact that uh you're a God who is the God of light, and we thank you for the Lord Jesus, we thank you for um the great reminder that we come to at this time that He did come, but we also feel the the tension between uh light and darkness. And along with Kanishka, I pray for those families who've lost um uh members of their family or very close friends, and I pray that uh you would help them to process uh their thoughts and their grief. And I pray that you'd help the community in Bondi, the general community and the church community and the Jewish community, the different synagogues affected, uh the different um uh groupings, all to um have a uh a common uh rejection of uh anti-Semitic activity. And I pray that um the um sense of unity and working together as um as people who want to uphold the truth um would would be clear. Lord, I pray for these coming days and months and and years that you'd help uh the uh the authorities and uh the police and the emergency services and different community groups who can do um things to improve the situation, uh to do that. And Lord, I pray that we'd um not be uh um uh slack or relaxed in in terms of security issues, but also Lord, I pray that you'd just um guide um uh policy and security and um particularly in these in these coming days as we respond, people at Mpondi, the the synagogues, the um Jewish community particularly, and uh the Christian community to uh respond in a way which uh does hold out light and hold out hope, even in the context of this terrible tragic violence.

SPEAKER_00: 23:39

Uh our Heavenly Father, um we find it hard uh sometimes to see uh how your sovereign goodness uh is at work in events like this, but we know that it is, Father. Uh Father, we uh pray uh that the true light of heaven that's come into the world that we're about to celebrate at Christmas uh would somehow through this be a light uh that shines uh to your ancient chosen people Israel, and that even through this, where it seems from a worldly perspective that Jewish identity would be even more clamped down on and solidified, that it may be the case, uh that you use even what's happened here uh to see uh members of elect Israel brought uh into right relationship with you uh through the Lord Jesus. Uh Father, we pray that maybe that would happen through the love rightly uh shown by followers of Jesus uh to Jewish friends and neighbor, neighbors and and family. Um that uh somehow through this the the horrendous grief of uh what's unfolded, uh there would be uh joy that only really the gospel can ever bring uh to situations like this. And uh yeah, we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_04: 25:13

And Heavenly Father, in Sydney where life is so good, um and in Bondi where life is so good, we've been so interrupted by this um reminder of sin and evil and hatred and everything that is wrong with the world. And Father, we pray that um that as a consequence we might long for heaven desperately and see the wrong in our world and turn to you. We pray for the comfort that you offer us in our affliction and we pray that we might deeply grasp the comfort of Jesus Christ and so be able to comfort those others who are in trouble through the comfort that we ourselves have received. We pray that as the sufferings of Christ have overflowed to us, so through Christ our comfort might overflow to them. And uh Lord, we just remember that terrible massacre that happened at the time of the birth of Jesus and uh and the crying out of uh uh in Rama um of Rachel weeping for her children. And as we weep and mourn in Sydney today, um we just pray that more and more people might deeply know Jesus, the forgiveness, the acceptance, the love, and that that might be the posture of Christians to our community, and that people might be saved. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Our guests on the Pastor's Heart, Kanishka Raffle, the Archbishop of Sydney, Martin Morgan, the senior minister at Bondi Anglican Church, and Ben Pakula and uh Ben, a messianic Jew from southwest of Sydney. My name's Dominic Steele. We're going to shuffle things around with the Pastor's Heart this week. Uh, and so our regular episode on Tuesday will be delayed a few days, and uh, we'll be back then.