Church leaders have remembered the victims and paid tribute to the community in Aberfan, 60 years on from the worst mining-related disaster in British history.
A mountain of coal waste collapsed onto the Welsh village and its school in 1966, killing 116 children and 28 adults.
Many of the children were members of the Methodist Sunday school. Local minister Rev Irving Penberthy said he came to the village on the day of the disaster and “shared with many parents in their sorrow and pain”.
He said: “I encouraged them to stand fast in their faith and worship, to keep in touch with heaven, where I had always believed our lost children to be with the Lord, for Jesus said of children, ‘of such is the kingdom of heaven’.”
His words were shared at Aberfan by Rev Mark Slaney, president of the Methodist Conference, on a tour of the village and memorial with Church leaders. He reflected on his presidential theme of sorrow and joy: “There is sorrow in that this used to be a Methodist chapel and its Sunday school was wiped out in that disaster. The Sunday school went and the church itself has ceased to worship. But now it is finding new life as a regional Scout adventure centre. It is beginning to get a new lease of life, so the building in a sense is reflecting what is happening in the community.”
Salvation Army members were among the first on the scene, working alongside the emergency services and volunteers to provide practical and pastoral support.
Sheila Davies, now aged 94, recounted to the church and charity a conversation with bereaved parents that has stayed with her for six decades: “One mother answered the door in obvious agony and said, ‘We knew no happiness until she came to live here, and now that's been taken away from us.’ Those words have stayed with me ever since,” said Sheila. “On another visit, a man opened the door and simply asked, 'Where is your God now?' Even with faith, there are moments when tragedy challenges us. I'm grateful that my faith has sustained me to this day.”
The former Salvation Army officer was joined by fellow member David Tribble, now 74, at the Big Pit Coal Museum to record their memories ministering at the tragedy. Their stories will be preserved in the museum and at the church and charity’s International Heritage Centre in London.
Archbishop of Wales, Most Rev Cherry Vann, offered the Church in Wales’ “prayers for the people of a community which has shown, in face of unbearable suffering, the most inspiring resilience and strength.”
She said: “Faced with the appalling loss of so many lives, mostly those of young children, it is understandable that questions are asked; not least, the question, ‘Where was God?’
“There are no easy answers, and this is perhaps especially true for people of faith who believe in a God of love and justice. But we can, with the eyes of faith, see in the actions of all those involved in this harrowing event something of God’s love and compassion, in the heroism of those school staff who gave their lives to save their young pupils, in the untiring labours of the rescue workers, in the patient vigils of those who sat with the mourners, in the goodwill of those, far and near, who sent support, in the righteous anger of those who sought justice, in the open hearts of all those who, at the time and over the many years since, have prayed, wept and felt with the people of Aberfan,” the archbishop said.