MOURNERS gathered at York Minster today for a poignant memorial service for the dead of the North Yorkshire rail disaster.

But the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, was giving a sermon of hope to a congregation that included the Prince of Wales.

Prince Charles was to speak privately after the service with relatives of the ten men who died on the East Coast Main Line, just south of Selby, on Wednesday, February 28.

Candles were lit for each of those who died when the 5.59am York to London passenger train collided with a Freightliner service at Great Heck. Their names were read out with a space of silence after each.

Before the service, people lined up behind barriers outside the Minster. Many were simply tourists and passers-by who were hoping to catch a glimpse of Prince Charles, but some had more understanding of the significance of the occasion.

Paula McKenna, of Clifton Green, who was with her partner, Mark Paver, said of Charles's support for the relatives: "It's a nice gesture for them and I think that's what's important."

First to arrive was Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who was escorted into the Minster. Then came York MP Hugh Bayley and his wife, to gather with the Lord Mayor of York, Coun Shan Braund, and other dignitaries, on the steps of the Minster. Gradually, others entered, one woman wearing a dark hat and veil. Prince Charles arrived to a subdued welcome, wearing a dark blue suit and overcoat. He greeted dignitaries on the steps and entered the Minster as organ music started to play for the beginning of the service. The Archbishop told the congregation of victims' families and friends, survivors, emergency service workers and dignitaries: "Today, we are united in sadness and sorrow as we stand alongside those whose loved ones were so suddenly and unexpectedly taken from them."

"We pray too for all those who have been bereaved as well as those injured, and all who will live with the scars of this day - physical, emotional, spiritual - for the remainder of their lives."

Dr Hope also praised the emergency services for the readiness and swiftness of their response.

"We take them all so much for granted, that they will be there when needed. And indeed they are - giving of themselves in such circumstances and often at considerable risk and danger to themselves - in their service of others, physical, emotional and spiritual.

"Such a rescue as was witnessed at Great Heck on that day and in subsequent days, involved large numbers of people with hugely differing skills and expertise. We saw them working together in a co-ordinated way - a sure sign of how things really could and should and ought to be every day."

The people of Great Heck received praise from Dr Hope.

"We should not either forget the people of Great Heck itself - those living just beneath and at the trackside, and who woke that morning to the noise of the crash and in the stunned silence that followed looked out incredulously on the sight before them.

"They too at once began to do what they could in the shadows of that breaking day, and later to be available with practical support to those in the first line of the rescue."

The Archbishop said the crash, caused when a Land Rover slid off the M62, derailing a GNER passenger train, had touched a wide range of people, including the rail industry as a whole.

"That cascade of totally unforeseen and unexpected circumstances on that morning demonstrates to us the fragility and frailty of our life in this world, which is, in fact, with each one of us every day of our lives," he was saying.

"There was the tangled wreckage that Friday morning early, which I still remember so vividly. But there was also on the horizon the first signs of the dawn of a new day - the sky shot with the beams of the morning sun.

"There in that moment, yes the destruction and the desolation of one day, yet giving way to the new hope, the new possibilities, the new life of another."

Dr Hope said events like the Great Heck crash made people ask "why?".

He said the recent chain of events, first the floods, then the rail crash, now foot and mouth and the volatility of the money markets made us ask profound and ultimate questions about ourselves and the world.

Morning journey that gave disaster a human face...

AN early morning journey brought home to Dr Hope the grim reality of the tragedy which so cruelly took ten lives last month at Greak Heck.

"It was just last week that I took the 0559 from York to King's Cross," the Archbishop told the congregation at York Minster.

"It was a cold, dark morning and as usual, once the train was on its way, some made their way to the buffet car for a tea or coffee and a toasted bacon sandwich; some were already deep into their morning newspaper; some renewed their slumbers from which they had no doubt been so rudely awakened to catch the train at this early hour."

Dr Hope told the congregation that his journey was on a day like any other, and he realised that those travelling on Wednesday, February 28, would have felt and acted the same way.

"A day now etched into our memories as a day which can never be like any other day ever again.

"As we approached the scene of this searing tragedy, the train itself began to slow down - as if, three weeks on, to pay tribute to those who had lost their lives and who were injured in so unexpected and so sudden an accident."

Updated: 12:55 Saturday, March 31, 2001