Bishop Sean, Bishop of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf in which every parish and chaplaincy has direct experience of the current Israeli American war, has issued a defiant Easter message.
Beloved in Christ
Grace and peace to you in the name of our crucified and risen
Lord Jesus.
This Easter our Diocese gathers in the shadow of war—a
conflict that wounds our compatriots, livelihoods, political
alliances and creation itself. Holy Week and Easter services in
Jerusalem have been cancelled; the Holy Sepulchre indefinitely
closed—spiritual wounds inflicted on the Christians of the Land
of the Holy One, and all pilgrims.
And yet we defiantly declare on this Easter Sunday, as we do
every Easter Sunday: “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!”
The Resurrection is not a denial of suffering in the world, as we
can see in the wounded body of the risen Christ. He is not
unmarked but bears the scars of crucifixion. As Rowan
Williams has written, the risen Jesus stands among his
disciples not as one who has forgotten suffering, but as one
who has transformed it. His wounds are not signs of defeat,
but of a love that has gone to the uttermost and has not been
overcome.
The Middle East continues to be wounded by this conflict. But
wherever the Church cares for someone in need, rejects
hatred, resists despair and embodies, however imperfectly, the
sacrificial and reconciling love of Christ, then the stone from
the tomb is rolled away, suffering is transformed, wounds begin
to heal, and God’s new creation emerges from the rubble.
In a time of war, every act of love is an act of resistance. Every
refusal to participate in what is dehumanising and destructive is
a proclamation of the Resurrection. Every whispered prayer is a
participation in the life of God.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!
Yours in Christ
Bishop Sean
Ther Bishop expects to spend Holy Week and Easter visiting and supporting Gulf Chaplaincies.
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