Prayers of repentance will be said at the church closest to Haut de la Garenne, where the remains of a child were found, at a service attended by Jersey’s highest officials this evening.

Rev Canon Dr Peter Williams who has arranged the service at Gouray Church where he is vicar, told Times Online that prayers of “corporate repentance” would be said during the service attended by the Island’s First Minister, the Chief of Police and the Queen’s representative.

Canon Williams said: “We all need to repent all the time there will be prayers that involve repentance but no prayers that lay the finger of blame on this or that person. It will be corporate repentance.”

The congregation will pray the words, "From murder, from sudden death and from dying unprepared, Good Lord, deliver us," as they are gathered in the church with a capacity for 300.

The prayers, which will form part of a service of hymns and silent reflection, will highlight the fact that the community was not “aware and attuned” to the situation, Canon Williams said. But he stressed that it was not the business of the church to “repent on behalf of others” and that the generalised prayer would be in the context of the details emerging from the former care home.

Jersey’s most senior churchman,The Very Reverend Bob Key, Dean of Jersey who sits in the Island's parliament said it would be a time for people to cast their cares to God. The Dean told Times Online he would talk about "God's cry for justice for the victims, God's priority care for children, and God's gift of hope for the victims," when he addresses the congregation this evening.

The service will include a reading from Matthew 18 where Jesus rebukes his disciples telling them that children are welcome in his kingdom. The hymn Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah will close the gathering which will begin at 7.30pm and last for just over an hour.

Canon Williams said the service would point people to a “power beyond themselves” to a God who brings hope to “desperate” circumstances.