The Bishop of Lichfield has put hope at the centre of his Easter message.
The Right Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave touches on many of the challenges facing societies across the globe as part of his annual address.
The Bishop’s Easter message can be read in full below:
It doesn’t seem such a great time to be around just now, if we are honest. Violent crime is daily reported from our cities. Our political processes seem paralysed. Antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate crime continually resurface. People bitterly divided in their views insult and mock one another on social media.
Our environmental crisis deepens inexorably… and so one could go on, and on. It is not surprising that so many feel anxious, disillusioned or fearful of our present state, and look back to better times, despairing of the future.
Two people were feeling pretty much like that two thousand years ago, trudging along a road near Jerusalem.
“We had hoped that we had found somebody who would restore our kingdom,” they said to a stranger who joined them. “We had hoped …” – what sad words those are, but how accurately they sum up the feelings of so many people today.
But the wonder of Easter is that all that negativity changed through those two people’s encounter with the stranger. Their hearts burned within them as he spoke to them of hope and a new future. He opened their eyes to new life when he broke bread with them, and they went back to the city full of joy.
He had showed them that death, despair and decay did not have the last word. They knew that he had passed from death to life, and he wanted to take them with him on the same journey.
That message of hope still echoes in our own society, and it still challenges us to bring new life and new possibilities into our tired world.
We can take simple actions to help restore our kingdom: take the time and trouble to get to know someone from a different background to ourselves; listen carefully and respectfully to views with which we strongly disagree; look out for a neighbour who is hurting and care for them; help out at our foodbank or night shelter; make ‘green’ choices in our lifestyle to reduce, reuse and recycle … and so one could go on, and on.
When we act in these ways, we are helping to bring into the world the new life and hope which Easter promises to us all.
It is that time of year again when the Anglicans decide to bravely raise a quivering head, oh so very slightly above the barricades, to deliver a customary glib narration, making sure that they satisfy all of the required essentials and tick all of the relevant boxes:
Violent Crime..tick
Antisemitism…tick
Islamaphobia…tick
Hate Crime……tick
Green choices…tick
Recycle…………tick
This message, which could have been written by any public official or politician, is pathetically bland, uninteresting, very safe and proves once again why the Anglican Church is so out of touch with the common zeitgeist and why it is dying in these Isles.
Oh Bishop, I do realise that this is only a snippet from your whole message but I think that the rest of it is probably more of the same and by the way you forgot to mention the name of Jesus, The Crucifixion and the Real Resurrection, or maybe you thought that this would offend.
Are the CoE getting into god now?
I knew they did investments and land deals.