Candlelit Vigil To Be Held For 16-Year-Old Aberdeen School Boy Bailey Gwynne
A candlelit vigil is to be held following the shocking'' death of school pupil Bailey Gwynne.
A church in Aberdeen will host the event on Thursday after the death of the 16-year-old boy at a nearby school.
Rev Ewen Gilchrist said he is opening the church to provide a sanctuary where people can come'' following the death of the fifth-year-pupil.
The teenager was rushed to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with serious injuries after police were called to the school in the west of the city at about 1.30pm on Wednesday. He died a short time later.
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in connection with his death.
Rev Gilchrist, part of the school's chaplaincy team, said: We don't want to fill the vigil time with words. We won't tell people what to feel or what to think.
But we do want to provide a safe and healing place where people can bring their hurt, their bewilderment, their questions, their sadness and even their anger.
People will be free to move around, to light candles, to write on the message boards for Bailey and add a prayer to the prayer tree. Every 15 minutes one of the chaplains will share a reflection.''
He said the local community would rally round those who are struggling to come to terms with events at the secondary school, although Rev Gilchrist said healing will take time''.
The community is very supportive, the wider community, people will quietly keep an eye on each other, that's what we would expect people to do and the churches will do what we can to be part of that process,'' he stressed.