Pond a place of grief and prayer

When two-year-old Dean Shillingsworth’s body was found in a suitcase in an Ambarvale pond on October 17, rector of the local Rosemeadow Anglican Church, the Rev David Cole did not expect that he and parishioner Cherie Kervin would spend days talking to and praying with hundreds of locals, who came to the pond to pay their respects.

“This was a simple attempt to help people who were grieving from the local community, people who were struggling to deal with death, some who had suffered the loss of children and found it bewildering that a child could go missing without being reported,” he says.

Local police and council asked Mr Cole to coordinate a community memorial service on October 26. Mr Cole gave a short talk and joined two other members of the parish in reading prayers for the community and Dean’s family. Members of the Shillingsworth family, of which some are Christian, also attended.

The parish circulated 3500 brochures containing counselling contacts and ideas for dealing with grief.

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