Bondi mourners pay respects at interfaith Perth service

The head of Western Australia’s Anglican Church has declared light will win following the Bondi terror attack that claimed 15 innocent lives in a moving National Day of Mourning service at St George’s Cathedral in Perth.

Archbishop of Perth Kay Goldsworthy led the service, which featured members of a range of communities of faith, including Jewish Community Council of WA president Dr Michael Levitt, who read from the book of Isaiah.

WA Premier Roger Cook, Governor Chris Dawson, and Emergency Services Minister Paul Papalia, Energy Minister Amber Jade Sanderson and Jewish upper house MP Simon Ehrenfeld also attended the service.

The service was one of two held in Perth to mark the day following a service in the City of Stirling led by Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin and Perth Hebrew Congregation chief rabbi Daniel Lieberman on Thursday morning.

The theme of the day was “light will win – a gathering of unity and remembrance”, which Goldsworthy spoke to in her prayer.

“Wherever we are, we’re holding before us a simple and powerful conviction. Light will prevail. Light will win,” she said.

“We don’t say these words casually, and not because the darkness has been small.

“The very opposite, the violence that erupted in a place of everyday joy at Bondi on 14th of December, shattered lives, families, community and the sense of safety that many 21st-century Australians have been able to take for granted.

“We gather today not to deny the darkness of that day and the days since, but to stand honestly within that darkness we gather to affirm that it does not that it will not have the final word.”

There will be a minute of silence at 4.01pm WA time.

Monuments across WA will be lit up in white on Thursday night, including Optus Stadium, Matagarup Bridge, Mount Street Bridge, Sky Ribbon Bridge, Joondalup Drive Bridge, Graham Farmer Freeway Tunnel and Great Northern Highway Port Hedland Interchange Bridge.

Flags outside WA government offices will be flown at half-mast.

Cook said he was putting the theme of “light will win” into practice by always acting with a sense of inclusion.

“As the leader of the state, that is always my abiding principle, that everyone feels that they belong in Western Australia,” he said.

“Everyone feels at peace and feels safe in this great state, and that we always take the opportunity to reinforce those principles.”

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