Mr Waite says islanders should look to the future with hope

Former Beirut hostage Terry Waite preached at the main Liberation Day service in the Royal Square in St Helier on Sunday.

He called for any feelings of bitterness over Jersey's occupation to be put aside.

Before the service there was a march of veterans through the centre of the town.

Period costume

Terry Waite, 65, was acting as the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy when he was kidnapped in Beirut and imprisoned for five years.

At Sunday's service, he compared his experiences at the hands of his captors in Beirut with those of islanders during the occupation.

He said: "People should look to the future with hope so we take this experience as being a bitter experience in many ways, but one the people of Jersey have not allowed in any sense to destroy them."