Press Releases
EASTER MESSAGE 2003 FROM ARCHBISHOP ROBIN EAMES
When the disciples had overcome their initial shock at the Resurrection that first Easter Day they had to move on, to move back into life and accept that so much had changed. Christ had overcome death and failure – new hope had been born for their world.
This Easter this sad and divided world learns again the Christian message of the Resurrection. There will be those who follow other faiths and do not recognise its significance while others will remain indifferent. But for Christians Easter Day makes sense out of all they believe.
To move on is not always easy in life. But that message is clear and demanding for this community this Easter. We must move on. We must take our disappointments, our frustrations, our anger, our hurt and our memories of the past – and under God find the courage and the strength to move on. In politics, in religious understandings of each other, in community issues and in personal life – we must move on. The past is too full of the burdens of failure and pain. The future is what we can make it under God.
The Christian understanding of the Resurrection compels us to move back into life with the certainty that the God of hope, the God of faith and the God of comfort is with us in new ways. That is the real basis of hope – not just for us in our own land – but for a divided world which is confronted with devastating questions this Easter. Let that courage and certainty give us all courage to reach out into the future with a new confidence in ourselves and in each other.
Further information from:
THE CHURCH OF IRELAND PRESS OFFICE
Church of Ireland House
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Belfast BT1 2QH
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