ONE of Suffolk's most senior clerics has spoken of the need not to be afraid of terror, drawing on his own experiences living in London under the shadow of IRA attacks.

ONE of Suffolk's most senior clerics has spoken of the need not to be afraid of terror, drawing on his own experiences living in London under the shadow of IRA attacks.

The Rt Rev Clive Young, bishop of Dunwich and the second most senior priest in the county, has written an open letter to Suffolk's 19,000 regular church-goers in next month's "East Anglican'' diocesan newsletter.

In it the bishop tells how terror is what people are anxious about in the modern world and how life must go on.

The bishop, who served in London as a clergyman for 27 years from 1972 to 1999, writes: "Terror is our contemporary anxiety. The bad news, according to those who claim intelligence, is that it's inevitable.

"For years we lived in the City of London under the multi-screen gaze of security. The "ring of steel" ended just round the corner. We were just outside it.

"Despite the IRA campaign of those years, mild in comparison with now, life went on in the City.

"What on earth can it be like to live in the refugee camps of Palestine, or to be waiting for a bus in Jerusalem, or looking for a job Baghdad? Life goes on, amidst terror and death.''

The bishop said platitudes do not work and the climate terrorism has brought about is difficult to change.

But he writes that Christianity tells of not being afraid, and, people should unite for justice and peace, ending terror by ending the causes of terror.

The bishop, who spent most of his Church career in London before coming to Suffolk as a bishop, served as a curate, priest-in-charge, vicar and archdeacon in London, serving in parishes including Hammersmith, Hackney and Holborn.