Rev Haynes Hubbard outside Our Lady of the Light church
By Gail Edgar
July 12 2008 01:00 AM
The Anglican priest who prayed with the McCanns after Maddie vanished has revealed he feared for the safety of his own children in the aftermath of the little girl's abduction.
Rev Haynes Hubbard, who is the senior chaplain of St Vincent's Anglican Chaplaincy, arrived in Portugal just three days after Maddie went missing on May 3 — one year ago on Saturday.
And the shock and trauma of what happened in Praia da Luz affected his wife Susan so much she initially wanted the family to leave the country and return to their native Canada.
The couple first heard the name Madeleine McCann when they landed at Lisbon airport on May 6 with their three children, then aged nine, eight and six months.
Speaking to Sunday Life at the Our Lady of the Light church where a vigil is still held for Maddie every Friday evening, Rev Hubbard recalled: "We left Canada on May 5 and arrived here on Sunday, May 6. My wife had our infant child in her arms and in Portuguese a woman asked her 'where are you going?'.
"My wife responded in Portuguese, 'to Praia da Luz,' and the woman said, 'oh no, that's where the little girl's been taken from'.
"She said this to a woman with three children crowding around her ankles.That was our introduction.
"We came down from the airport straight to the church and the media were swarming the building."
Rev Hubbard immediately got to work by helping to organise special services for Madeleine at the small Roman Catholic church in the town which the Anglican community of Praia da Luz also uses.
He met the McCanns during the first week of Maddie's disappearance and he and his wife gradually formed a close friendship with them.
"My wife Susan comes from generous country stock and she started cooking for them and leaving little meals — pots of stew and loaves of bread and things for Kate with a note.
"Eventually the notes became phonecalls and the phonecalls became visits and eventually they became part of our family.
"We prayed lots together and they came to our services very often."
Rev Hubbard revealed what it was like living in Praia da Luz in the weeks following Madeleine's disappearance.
"We were watching the news about two weeks afterwards. We were watching the helicopters and listening to them on television, but when we turned the television off we could still hear them.
"That sense that this isn't something you can turn off was a heavy, heavy weight.
"You have to live it and we were going to live this story, this pain, vicariously but still be present to it."
He explained the experience was very frightening for a family who had just moved to the country to live overseas for the first time.
"It wasn't a weight that we didn't want to carry, but it was very frightening.
"We locked our doors and locked our windows in ways we never thought of. Susan wanted to go back to Canada because it was safe in Canada — of course it's not, but it felt safer there because this hadn't happened."
Gradually, though, the couple realised that the people of Praia da Luz were special.
"Some evil happened in this community which isn't reflective of the community at all. Evil has been perpetrated and Madeleine has been taken.
"The community acted very strongly, they said 'we're going to look'.
"They were wonderfully responsive. This was our introduction to Luz — it was a place that said we're going to put these posters up, we'll look, and look, and look.
"Luz is still a beautiful little town that a horrible thing has happened to. The character of Luz isn't different.
"Luz is not a tainted place. Evil happens and we need to beat it down with goodness, if we can."
Today, Rev Hubbard is glad he and his family decided to stay in the quiet Algarve town that has appeared in so many headlines.
But while he describes Kate and Gerry as "part of the family" and remains in close contact with them, he admits he doesn't know what they are like without the sadness which has gripped them since Maddie's disappearance.
"We met a couple who had lost their daughter, whose daughter had been taken away from them, and that was shattering.
"Their fear for her was overwhelming but you can't live in fear and they're too resourceful within themselves to live in fear, so now they're striking back and trying to make a difference.
"But the couple who have lost their daughter are still there. I haven't been to their home but I can only imagine the empty spot that was Madeleine's still being there and crushing them with its memory and its presence.
"So despite the determination to make sure that this doesn't happen again to anyone else, their Madeleine is still missing and she needs to come home.
"They are a pretty remarkable couple, but they are still a couple who are waiting for Madeleine to come home.
"I don't know what Kate is like with a smile in her heart. I've seen her with a smile on her lips, but I've never seen her with a smile in her heart.
"We can't pretend to know them properly, but what we have seen in grief we are impressed with and profoundly moved by.
"We pray that one day we will know them when they are complete again."
After Madeleine's disappearance, both the Roman Catholic and Anglican communities who use the church, began to meet for prayer vigils for Maddie.
At the beginning, around 35 people attended regularly.
Now, a small group of around 10 people — mostly Portuguese — still meets every Friday night.
A special service has been planned for the one year anniversary of Maddie's disappearance next Saturday night, although Rev Hubbard says he hopes instead they will be travelling to Kate and Gerry's home in Rothley, Leicestershire to celebrate her safe return.
"We are just going to continue to pray that she comes home and that God will change the hearts of those who have her and that on May 3 there will be no need to go to a service here, but that we can all go to England and celebrate with Kate and Gerry as they have their little daughter back."
Rev Hubbard remains convinced that Madeleine is alive and can one day be returned to her parents.
"Then we can finally meet a couple and a family who are what they're supposed to be. And that would be an extraordinary moment."
While the community who worship at Our Lady of the Light have united to pray for the little girl's return, the story has divided people worldwide.
Rev Hubbard said: "This story more than any other has allowed people to express the most extraordinary opinions completely based on absolute subjective nonsensical evidence. This has not been a unifying story — but it has allowed some to say 'I don't care what anyone else thinks, I'm going to pray for Madeleine and Kate and Gerry and Sean and Amelie.
"I'm certain that the secular community of both English and Portuguese have all sorts of other opinions, but for those of us who go to this church and attend services, we're just waiting for Madeleine to come home."
