wfn.org | }ACNS] Easter Message from Archbishop of Canterbury

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 3962     |     LAMBETH	|     22 MARCH 2005

An Easter Message to the Anglican Communion from the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams

The document that came from the recent meeting of Anglican Primates in
Northern Ireland has been read and discussed very widely. But one
paragraph has barely been mentioned by any commentator, inside the
Church or outside. The Primates repeated and underlined their commitment
to the Millennium Development Goals defined by the United Nations -
including the hope to reduce poverty and hunger by a half before 2015.
They also renewed their commitments in respect of HIV/AIDS education and
prevention, noting too the need for similar work to get rapidly underway
in dealing with the spiralling threats of TB and malaria.

It should not need saying, but it must be said: our Christian faith is a
faith in the rising of Jesus Christ from the tomb in his glorified body;
and so it is about leading lives that take the life of the body
seriously. The words for 'salvation' and 'health' cannot be
distinguished in most languages, and this should remind us that faith in
Christ has to be bound up with care for suffering bodies as well as
suffering souls.

Only Christ can make us whole in every aspect of our lives. But we can
show the world something of the nature of that comprehensive hope in
Christ as we put our energies to work for healing. First we have to
begin to learn what it is for each one of us to receive healing: quietly
and thankfully, we must let our wounds be exposed to the physician and
allow his life to 'sink into' our lives. And then we must act as if we
believed we had truly received authority to heal - in all sorts of
different ways.

One of the least known features of the life of the Anglican Church over
the last twenty years has been the dramatic revival of the ministry of
healing as a routine part of the life of thousands of congregations. But
it is the same hope for healing that is shown when we also look at how
we can put our resources at the disposal of programmes to combat disease
and poverty.

This is not an additional extra - the boring bit of a message in which
all the excitement is generated by church politics. It should really
shock us that a document like the Primates' communique has been read as
if it were only intended to be about our internal struggles. It means
that we have not been heard to speak about the Resurrection. This
Easter, let us, as Paul tells us in Colossians 3, try to live as if we
had truly been raised with Christ - clothed 'with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience' and showing all these things in our
priorities for action to heal suffering bodies.

(c) Rowan Williams 2005

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