Statement from The Rt Revd David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, following the death of Alan Henning

Our prayers and our thoughts have been with the family of Alan Henning over these last weeks, during which his life has been so publicly threatened. Today those thoughts and prayers are redoubled, not only here in his home city of Salford but across the globe.

In his life Alan Henning united people across the boundaries of nationality and faith. He did so both through his humanitarian actions and by the love that drove him on. That his tragic death continues to unite people across Britain and beyond is demonstrated today by the range of people and organisations paying him tribute.

To ISIS we say: You no longer have the power to shock us, now you just sicken us. Your brutality, against any who don't share your narrow, perverted worldview, doesn't undermine our determination, it stiffens our resolve. Your destiny is not to be a force in human history, merely one of its sad footnotes."