Easter message from Right Reverend John Stroyan Bishop of Warwick - The Leamington Observer

Easter message from Right Reverend John Stroyan Bishop of Warwick

Leamington Editorial 21st Apr, 2019   0

THE GOOD news of Easter, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is not simply about the past, an event in history, some two thousand years ago. Nor is it simply about the future, what happens when we die. It is good news for us here and now. It tells us that there is more to life than this life and that we can experience it now, in this life. To discover this new dimension, we have first of all to know our need of it. We have to face up to the truth. We have to see what it is uncomfortable to see. We have to see and to recognise not only all that it grieves us to see out there in the world: war, conflicts, violence, divisions, injustice and poverty. We have also to recognise our own capacity to do wrong or not to do what is right. We have to face up to the bad news before we can discover the good news.

The extraordinary statue of the Knife Angel, currently outside Coventry Cathedral has touched the hearts and minds of thousands who have seen it. It is made from knives, handed in to the police, knives that had been or would have been used for violence. The deeply sad and anguished face of the angel, seems to ask ‘Why? or ‘How?’ could you let this happen? So many stabbings. Though created out of weapons of violence, it pleads for peace and this longing for peace is the beginning of hope, if we can turn these longings into action. At least one young man, on seeing the statue, handed his knife in to the police. The impact of the Knife Angel resonates so powerfully with the story of Coventry Cathedral, bombed almost to destruction in 1940, but out of this destruction came a new commitment to building peace and a new Cathedral committed to reconciliation. This is the way God works, through crucifixion to resurrection. This is the Easter story, in which God invites us to share, turning despair to hope, anguish to peace and darkness to light in the world around us. If we are not part of the solution we are part of the problem.

Right Reverend John Stroyan

Bishop of Warwick




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