Kember Reunites with Family and Friends

|PIC1|British ex-hostage Norman Kember reunited with his family Saturday in London, after asking for a period of privacy to reflect on his experience.

A day after returning to Britain, the 74-year-old participated in his church service he has attended for more than 40 years, singing hymns, greeting old friends, and listening attentively to the words of the minister, Rev Bob Gardiner.

The minister thanked the efforts and prayers of people of all faiths in securing Mr Kember's release, adding: "Our tears of sorrow have been changed into tears of joy."

During the service, the Kembers sat next to their friend John Newby. Mr Newby said Mr Kember was "fine" and would be "telling his story in due course".

The service was also attended by Navin Shah, leader of Harrow Council, who is not a member of the congregation but came to show his support.

|PIC2|He said: "I'm here to share the joy of the release of Norman. I'm here to welcome Norman with the other members of our diverse community of Harrow.

"We are proud of Norman, what he stands for, which is peace. I personally am entirely supportive of the spirit in which he took the mission with his other colleagues to Iraq. People have to stand up for peace.”

Kember has arrived in Heathrow Airport at 12.22pm on a British Airways flight from Kuwait on Saturday, following his rescue by special forces soldiers, after being held hostage in Iraq for four nearly months.

He expressed it was "great to be free" after he and two peace activist colleagues, Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and Jim Loney, were released Thursday.

|TOP|Canadians Sooden, 32, and Loney, 41, headed to Baghdad airport on Saturday to begin their journey home from Iraq, a colleague said.

After arriving at Toronto's airport Sunday, Loney said: "It's great to be alive. For 118 days, I disappeared into a black hole and somehow, by God's grace, I was spit out again.

"It was a terrifying, profound, powerful, transformative and excruciatingly boring experience."

The three rescued hostages-- Kember, Sooden, and Loney-- had been in captivity along with American Tom Fox, 54, since they were snatched in Baghdad on November 26.

The four were taken hostage by a mysterious group called the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. Mr Fox was killed in Baghdad by his captors on March 9. Christian Peacemaker Teams announced a religious ceremony to be held in Toronto on April 2 in memory of Fox.

The four hostages travelled to Iraq last year as a "gesture of solidarity" with the Canada-based group Christian Peacemaker Teams.