The Archbishop of Canterbury has used his Easter sermon to call upon British Christians to remember what the cross stands for in their faith and refrain from equating opposition to their faith to the physical persecution suffered by believers in other countries.

Dr Rowan Williams said recent disputes over the display of religious symbols could be put down to “bureaucratic silliness”, adding that the mixture of contempt and fear towards the Christian faith in parts of British society was “unjustified”.

He called upon Christians, however, to keep a sense of proportion whenever they experienced opposition to their faith.

'It is not the case that Christians are at risk of their lives or liberties in this country simply for being Christians. Whenever you hear overheated language about this remember those many, many places where persecution is real and Christians are being killed regularly and mercilessly or imprisoned and harassed for their resistance to injustice,” he said.

He told Christians to remember the suffering of minority Christians in other countries like Nigeria, where hundreds have been murdered by Muslims in recent months, as well as Iraq, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

“We need to keep a sense of perspective, and to redouble our prayers and concrete support,” he said.

The Archbishop’s comments will be a disappointing blow to clergy who claimed in a letter to The Telegraph last week that the rights of Christians in the UK were “being treated with disrespect”.

He made no reference in his sermon to controversial comments he made in a BBC interview stating that the Catholic Church in Ireland had “lost all credibility” because of the sex abuse scandal. The Archbishop later apologised for the comments, insisting that he had not meant to offend the Catholic Church.

He went on to encourage Christians to speak openly about the cross and its promise of renewal.

“Is the God we see in the cross, the God who lives through and beyond terrible dereliction and death and still promises mercy, renewal, life – is that God too much of a menace to be mentioned or shown in the public life and the human interactions of society?" he said.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Vincent Nichols, used his Easter sermon to acknowledge the Church’s guilt over decades of unreported child abuse by priests.

"Talk of sin is not always popular - unless we are talking about other people's sins,” he said.

"In recent weeks the serious sins committed within the Catholic community have been much talked about.

"For our part, we have been reflecting on them deeply, acknowledging our guilt and our need for forgiveness.

"This is the journey of Holy Week.

"Indeed, to appreciate the message of this great Christian feast we have to begin with our own sin and shame."

Pope Benedict XVI did not refer to the sex abuse scandal rocking the Church nor of the criticism he has faced in recent weeks for his handling of a child abuse case from the 1990s, saying simply that Jesus had "not reacted when insulted".











B&Bs should be allowed to turn away gay couples, says Grayling

A broadsheet newspaper has published a secret recording of the shadow home secretary expressing his support for the right of Christian bed and breakfast owners to refuse gay couples.

In the recording published on The Observer website, Chris Grayling suggests that Christian B&B owners should be entitled to turn away gay couples, while Christian hotel owners should be made to accommodate them.

His comments were made last week during a meeting at the Centre for Policy Studies in London in response to a question that arose about civil liberties.

"I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences," he said. "I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."

He said of Christian hotel owners: "If they are running a hotel on the high street, I really don't think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes."

Sexual orientation regulations brought into force by the Government in 2007 make it illegal to refuse to provide a good or service to another person on the basis of their sexuality.

Mr Grayling defended his comments, telling the BBC it was “wholly wrong” to think he was against gay rights.

Grayling, who voted in favour of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, insisted he was not looking to change the law.

“We must be sensitive to the genuinely held principles of faith groups in this country.

“But the law is now clear on this issue, I am happy with it and would not wish to see it changed.”

His comments come weeks after a gay couple said they were left “shocked and embarrassed” after Christian B&B owners Susanne Wilkinson and husband Francis refused to accommodate them because of their sexuality.

Mr Wilkinson said the rights of Christians should not have to be subordinated, while Mrs Wilkinson stressed that the property was not a hotel, but operated as a guest house and private home.






Archbishop apologises for Catholic Church remarks

The Archbishop of Canterbury has apologised after saying that the Catholic Church in Ireland had lost all credibility as a result of the child abuse scandal.

Dr Rowan Williams made the comments in an interview with Andrew Marr to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week programme.

In an uncharacteristic breach of ecumenical protocol, the Archbishop said in the interview: "I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who was saying that it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now.

"And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society, suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility - that's not just a problem for the Church, it is a problem for everybody in Ireland."

Dr Williams later called Archbishop Martin to express his “deep sorrow and regret for any difficulties which may have been created” by his comments and to insist that “nothing could have been farther from his intention than to offend or criticise the Irish Church”.

Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin and second most senior figure in the Catholic Church in Ireland, said he was “stunned” to hear Dr Williams’ remarks and that he had “rarely felt personally so discouraged” as he did when he heard them.

“I still shudder when I think of the harm that was caused to abused children. I recognise that their Church failed them,” he said in a statement.

“But I also journey with those – especially parents and priests - who work day by day to renew the Catholic Church in this diocese and who are committed to staying with their Church and passing on the faith in wearying times.

“Archbishop Williams’ comments will be for them immensely disheartening and will challenge their faith even further.”

He added that those working for renewal in the Church did not need such a comment on Easter weekend and “do not deserve it”.

The controversy comes after Jewish groups and the media accused a senior Catholic figure of comparing criticism of the Pope in recent weeks to anti-Semitism suffered by Jews.

In a Passion of the Lord service in St Peter’s Basilica on Friday, preacher to the Pope, Father Raniero Cantalamessa quoted a letter from a Jewish friend who had written to him condemning the “attacks” on the Pope over his handling of a child abuse case in the US in the 1990s.

He quoted: "The use of stereotypes and the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

The Vatican later issued a statement stressing that it did not regard the criticism of the Pope “to be in any ways similar to anti-Semitism” and that Fr Cantalamessa had “intended only to share an expression of solidarity from a Jewish brother”.







Celebrate God in the here and now, says Methodist President

The President of the Methodist Conference is inviting Christians to celebrate the risen Lord and his love in action in their lives today.

In his Easter message, the Rev David Gamble said it was not so important to dwell on what happened with Jesus’ body 2,000 years ago as it was to experience what Jesus was doing in lives today.

“That is why in our Easter liturgies we acclaim ‘He is risen’, not just ‘He did rise’. The heart of the Gospel is about now, not long ago and far away,” he said.

He said Luke, this year’s lectionary gospel, emphasised the ‘nowness’ of God’s action in Jesus. He pointed to Luke 4.21, where Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah in the local synagogue, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

“Here and now,” said Mr Gamble. “In many ways, the challenge facing us as a church today is precisely about witnessing to God’s love in action here and now.”

Part of the response to that challenge, he said, lay in engaging with the story of what happened 2,000 years ago in Palestine.

He added that the Church had a responsibility to witness the love and active involvement of God in the lives of individuals and communities to people in the UK and all around the world.

He encouraged Methodists to remember that some of the most exciting stories related to what God was doing through the Church today.

“There are some impressive and important stories to be told. Not of how things used to be. Not of our Church’s former greatness. Not of our happy memories. But of God’s love in action in the lives of people here and now,” he said.

“The stories come from all over the place. And it is important we share them.”

The full text of the message follows:

“I am writing this in York, during a visit to the York and Hull District where I spent the first thirteen years of my ministry, from 1974 to 1987, first in Tadcaster and then in York itself. It has been an amazing and often very moving few days. Among other things, on the Sunday morning I preached at the sung Eucharist at York Minster. In the evening I revisited Clowes Memorial Church in Hull West Circuit, where I preached my first ever sermon in January 1966. Needless to say, I used a different sermon this time round – though I didn’t meet anyone who claimed to remember my earlier one!

“On the Tuesday I revisited Hull University, where I studied Law from 1965 to 1968. I was shown round the much enlarged University campus and met with the Director and Assistant Director of the Law School and then the Vice-Chancellor. We talked about the University as it is now and its vision for the future. As we arrived at the University and parked the car, I noticed someone standing close to where we were parking, as if making sure we weren’t parking in the wrong space. I got out of the car and the person spoke my name. It was someone who’d been a Hull student (and a MethSoc member) at the same time as I was there, who had seen from the local paper that I was due to be visiting, and wanted to come and say hello. After 42 years! A very special moment.

“Back in York we drove round the city walls, one of York’s many well-known attractions. They are particularly attractive at this time of the year, as the daffodils begin to bloom. By Easter Day, and given a bit more sunshine, the grass slopes around the walls will be a sea of yellow.

“As I enjoyed the sight of the daffodils and reflected on my years spent in and near York, I remembered one or two funeral services I had taken at this time of year. I had sometimes spoken of the emerging daffodils as signs of new life outside the city wall – and suggested that this was very close to what this time of Holy Week and Easter is about. New life, outside the city wall. Echoes here of the first verse of the hymn ‘There is a green hill far away’.

“I also recollected that I was a minister in York at the time David Jenkins became Bishop of Durham and at the time of the controversy when he was quoted as describing the story of the resurrection as ‘a conjuring trick with bones.’ What he had actually said was that it had to be ‘more than a conjuring trick with bones’. And, rather more importantly, he’d suggested that the real proof and point of the resurrection was not about the precise details of what happened with the bones of Jesus 2000 years ago. What really mattered was our experience of the risen Lord now. That is why in our Easter liturgies we acclaim ‘He is risen’, not just ‘He did rise’. The heart of the gospel is about now, not long ago and far away.

“This year’s lectionary gospel has been Luke, in many ways my favourite gospel. The writer of Luke often emphasises the ‘nowness’ (if there is such a word) of God’s action in Jesus. So, for example, on the day at the beginning of his ministry when he went to his local synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah he then said ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ (Luke 4.21). Here and now.

“In many ways, the challenge facing us as a church today is precisely about witnessing to God’s love in action here and now. Obviously that is partly about engaging with the story of what happened 2000 years ago in Palestine. But it is also about witnessing to God’s love in action here and now in the lives of individuals and groups and communities in 21st century Britain and all around the world.

“Each year I have heard Presidents and Vice-Presidents returning from their travels, telling stories of some of the people they have met and things they have seen on their visits. They have sounded excited, moved and energised by what they have experienced. Now that I am three quarters of the way through my year of such visits I know exactly why. There are some impressive and important stories to be told. Not of how things used to be. Not of our church’s former greatness. Not of our happy memories. But of God’s love in action in the lives of people here and now. The stories come from all over the place. And it is important we share them.

“My March visit to the York and Hull District was a great chance for me to revisit old haunts and to meet people from my past. But it was an even greater chance to be reminded of the signs of new life happening now – outside the city walls of York, but also in individuals, churches and communities all over the world.

“The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed, alleluia!”

Haiti’s children facing healthcare emergency, says World Vision

Today’s society may be living in an ‘age of anxiety’ but for Christians it can be an age of opportunity, says one author.

London Institute of Contemporary Christianity associate Paul Valler admitted he was not sure things were getting better for Britain, despite signs of falling unemployment, rising bank profits, and renewed optimism in the American markets.

The former Finance and HR Director of Hewlett Packard voiced concern over the prospect of a hung parliament and ‘double-dip’ in the housing market.

“Uncertainty is a hallmark of our age ... Uncertainty triggers our underlying fears - fear of redundancy, fear of financial meltdown, fear of failure,” he said.

“Such fears can drive us into workaholism, perfectionism and a need to control everything.

“Rightly this is called the age of anxiety. Yet for the Christian it is paradoxically an age of opportunity. For true faith can only exist where there is doubt. Without some uncertainty there can be no genuine trust.”

In an Easter article for the LICC, Valler said the disciples had reacted to Jesus’ arrest with “extreme anxiety and stress” by striking one of the guards who came to arrest Jesus, fleeing the scene and denying the Lord.

He contrasted the response with that of Jesus, who “retained a calm serenity” in the face of hostility and alienation.

“Even during the agony of the cross, he offered forgiveness, care and encouragement to others.”

He concluded that the challenge as well as opportunity for Christians lay in telling people about Christ and to navigate their way through everyday circumstances focused on Jesus.

He added: “To be immersed in the sense of quiet confidence in God, whilst living and working in this age of economic and political uncertainty.”