|TOP|The Archbishop of Armagh has extolled the forgiveness of Christ as he faced the Cross at Calvary and expressed his hope for reconciliation in Northern Ireland in his Easter Sermon.

The Most Rev Dr Robin Eames urged forgiveness in order to bring about true reconciliation in the country that is still in the process of bringing to a full conclusion decades of hostility and conflict.

In his Easter Sermon delivered Sunday at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, Dr Eames spoke on the words of forgiveness spoken by Jesus at Calvary and the hope that is central to the Resurrection on the third day.

He said forgiveness and hope were “the core of the Easter experience for those who are rightly called ‘the Easter people’”.

“But those words are central to the Christian Easter today,” he added. “Forgiveness is bound up in the hope of the Resurrection.”

|QUOTE|Moving on to the present situation in Northern Ireland, Archbishop Eames said: “Despite all the difficulties and set-backs things are changing in Northern Ireland. There is hope as we see what was unimaginable even a few years ago becoming a reality.

“But true reconciliation cannot be enforced. Forgiveness is part of reconciliation. Forgiveness demands much – in fact too much for some. But understanding encompasses both hope and openness to each other.

“In that process we as a community can and must move on. The Resurrection experience demands nothing less.”

The Rt Rev Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore, also touched on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, attributing much of the rioting of last summer and early autumn in many Protestant areas to “a sense that all those things which held us and which we valued, have gone, and that there’s an emptiness in people’s hearts”.

He turned to hope, however, saying that the Risen Christ is “waiting to take all of us into a new and yet uncharted future, which is hopeful and enlightening”.

“What a wonderful Easter it would be if all of us, from all our communities, would together turn towards a future of mutual respect, unity, forgiveness, friendship and open welcome – the very values at the heart of what it means to be Easter disciples,” he said.