People can choose whether to be defined by the horrors and difficulties of today’s world or the compassionate response of communities coming together, the archbishop of Canterbury has said in his new year message.

Justin Welby delivered his message for 2018 from the London ambulance service’s special operations centre, which responds to major incidents in the capital. Its staff took hundreds of calls from members of the public caught up in the London Bridge and Borough Market terrorist attack in June.



As well as atrocities and tragedies in London and Manchester in 2017, “all over the world we witnessed the horror and devastation caused by terrorism”, Welby said.



He recalled the “desperation and sorrow” he witnessed when visiting Grenfell Tower on the day of the fire.



“Then there are those whose suffering will never make the news,” he said. “People who are struggling to find work or relying on food banks. Those who are bereaved, or coping with poor mental health or physical illness.”



In such difficult times, “there are often questions which hang in the air: is there any light at all? Does anyone care?”



Recalling the words of the Bible, “the light shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it”, Welby spoke of the light of resilience, heroism and compassion.



“We see [this light] in the faces of the hundreds of volunteers who turned out after Grenfell, simply to help strangers in need,” the archbishop said.



“We see it in the heroism of the ambulance crews, police, fire service and security forces. I will never forget the image of a group of unarmed police officers sprinting flat-out towards Borough Market, as so many people were running in the opposite direction.”



In the past year, “the depth of suffering was matched by a depth of compassion as communities came together”.

People could choose which stories defined them, he said. “The horror? Or the response? The darkness, or the light?”

Welby’s message was broadcast on BBC One at 1pm on Monday.