Bishop David’s Easter Message
As we continue through Holy Week, Bishop David invites us to reflect on what it means to stand alongside fellow Christians around the world - especially those who face hardship, danger, and uncertainty.
As we continue through Holy Week, Bishop David invites us to reflect on what it means to stand alongside fellow Christians around the world – especially those who face hardship, danger, and uncertainty. Bishop David shares this Easter message about presence, courage, and the enduring hope of the resurrection. His reflections remind us that, even amid global conflict and suffering, the joy of Easter continues to break through:
“A decade or so back, I spent Holy Week and Easter not here in Manchester, but in Pakistan, visiting our link diocese of Lahore.
“The trip had been long planned as a physical way of indicating our support for a church that is very much a minority in its land and often a persecuted one.
“My visit was made even more significant by the fact that I arrived just ten days or so after a suicide bomber had killed and injured several people in an attack on an act of worship in one of the diocese’s churches.
“Standing alongside our sisters and brothers, sharing with them on the journey to the cross and resurrection, in a time when they were facing great danger, felt like the right thing to be doing. The kind of support that the presence of a brother bishop from a link diocese can properly provide.
“Being physically present is, in my thinking, a form of incarnation: that Jesus came to live, die and rise physically, so we echo that willingness to be with God’s people in person.
“For that same reason, this year, Sue and I made plans to spend Holy Week in Jerusalem, as guests of the Archbishop. Travelling to Gethsemane, Golgotha and beyond, with him and his people, at a time when they’re caught up in the conflicts presently ravaging the Middle East.
“At the time I’m recording this message, as the conflict with Iran continues, it feels unlikely we will travel. We have not yet entirely given up hope, not least because I remember vividly how joyfully the people of Lahore celebrated this holy season, even in the immediate aftermath of an atrocity against them.
“Whether or not I can be with them in person, I’m confident that same joy will be present in Jerusalem this year.
“My prayer is that we in Manchester, who do not face such harrowing circumstances, will be equally full of the joy of the risen Lord.”
