Bishop Nick was in the House of Lords yesterday (Wednesday) when the attack took place at the Palace of Westminster.
As this week's duty Bishop, he was in the House of Lords chamber at the time, which was in lockdown before being evacuated.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said, "Inside the House, everybody was very calm and the police were superb. We were moved to Westminster Hall and then to Westminster Abbey".
He presented this morning's Thought for the Day on Radio 4's Today programme (text below) and writes in today's Yorkshire Post here.
He said, "Yesterday we saw the worst of human depravity - that empty, soulless vacuum from which joy has been sucked - but the Abbey was filled with conversation as we saw the best of human society and compassion."
The Church of England has issued a prayer here.
Bishop Nick's Thought for the Day Script, 23 March :-
Westminster
I entered the chamber of the House of Lords yesterday afternoon, ready to lead prayers. A colleague came in and said there had been an incident outside involving gunshots. Very quickly the whole of the Palace of Westminster was locked down. Over the next five hours we were moved from place to place, ending up for several hours in Westminster Abbey.
The normality of the day had been ripped apart in acts of wanton violence that beggar imagination. The ordinariness of life - tourists posing for photos with policemen at the gates of Parliament, people walking to and from work - collapsed in tragedy and misery. Words cannot comprehend the depths of shock as news filtered through of what had happened. Someone said to me: "the world feels less safe today".
The world of words is not short of explanations or interrogations. Even before we know the facts, judgments are made. This is inevitable in a world of instant communication. But, words are also needed as we attempt to grasp what has happened.
I turn to the Psalms. This Hebrew poetry collection is not for the squeamish or those who like to keep their religion tidy. One minute these poets are laughing at the absurdities of human beings, the next they are raging at God because of the injustices and cruelties of this world. And they were certainly no strangers to violence or horror. They knew what it was to be hunted; but they also knew the power of mercy and love and hope.
And that reflects what many of us in Parliament witnessed yesterday. While we were being kept secure by a remarkable police force, they were outside dealing with the unknowns of terror and the loss of a colleague. The parliamentary staff were professional and, as always courteous. Visitors, including parties of school children, were looked after by MPs who managed to keep everything calm and human. The emergency services did their stuff with discretion, skill and humanity.
Westminster Abbey took in over one thousand people and made the experience as good as they could.
Yesterday we saw the worst of human depravity - that empty, soulless vacuum from which joy has been sucked - but the Abbey was filled with conversation as we saw the best of human society and compassion. And maybe the Abbey was the best place for us to be - a place not only of refuge and mercy, but a locus of hope... a place whose very stones bear witness to the mess and muck as well as to the glory of human beings who struggle to make sense of it all. Here God is worshipped and here people laugh and weep and think and speak. Here is a space that refuses to stick God in a box where he can remain unsullied by the realities of a complex life.
Parliament will resume today and life will carry on. But, my prayers are for those whose lives are now for ever changed.