Why say Happy Easter? Because whether the Christian religious aspect to Easter is of relevance to you, or not, this is a traditional holiday, or period of celebration, known to humans long before its Christian connotation was adopted.
The holiday is linked to the spring equinox. The celebration is of the hope of new life that brings. The sense of well-being that inspires it comes from the increasing light and warmth of the day in the northern hemisphere. The prevailing mood is of new opportunity. There is the chance of life once more.
I think that worth celebrating of whatever faith, or none, that we are. Our essential similarity lets us share it.
It also lets us note that for many hope and opportunity are limited. That is by the choice of others.
If the Christian symbolism of sin has any meaning then that denial of well-being to some by others ranks high, in my opinion, amongst the sins for which forgiveness is required. It is certainly more important than much of the pettiness with which ranks as sin in the eyes of too many professing faith.
Living near Ely Cathedral, I find it hard to visit because of the refusal of the church to which it belongs to recognise the validity of gay relationships. This I think a particular sin on its part, indicative of too much of the division within society that those with the power to effect change are too cowardly to address when they are well aware of the significance of that change to those whose lives they harm by their refusal to embrace difference.
Easter reminds me, in that case, of the need to oppose artificially imposed division throughout our society, and beyond it. Whether that division be the vilification of the benefit claimant, or the practical denial of care to the sick and those who are dependent that creates unnecessary suffering, or the refusal to deliver timely justice to those who have been wronged, or the deliberately manufactured hostility towards those desperate for better lives arriving here in small boats when all other means are denied to them, or the actions of those who will destroy the chances of our life in this planet when the evidence of the harm of their current actions is apparent, the reality of that division is clear to see in a world in which those with power are actively seeking to deny opportunity and hope to others.
That denial is the great sin of our time. It is the blight on our hope this Easter. It is the wrong which needs to be addressed at this moment. It is the issue for which forgiveness needs to be sought.
If the bias to the poor implicit in the message of Christianity is to have meaning in the way that Desmond Tutu saw it, then condemnation of that sin of division is the task of us all, whether of faith or none, because the understanding of that wrongdoing is available to us all.
If there is to be hope at Easter it is that division might end, and there might be opportunity for all. That is possible. It is a sin that we deny it.
I live in hope.
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Fine words Richard but when the creation of that division is deliberate Government policy then I am afraid that I find it next to impossible to summon any forgiveness. Some atonement on their part, even occasional, would be welcome but nobody can hold their breath for ever. Happy Easter!
Amen to that.
Happy Easter Richard.
Well said.
I was having a conversation with myself the other day about this matter.
If God apparently made everything, he made LGB&T too. My gay acquaintances tell me that there was a point in their lives that they knew who they were – they realised.
It was a not a choice. Their sexuality was placed on their shoulders in as much the same way God placed the awesome responsibilities on the shoulders of Noah, the apostles and Jesus. It is enough for LGB&T to suffer for being different and coming to terms with that without opinions of others adding to their woes.
I still do not and never will trust the word of a church because too much human interpretation is involved and too much partiality comes into play. Our relationship with God or Jesus should be a personal one – not one dictated by an institution saying that it speaks for God. What arrogance!!
Church is surely their to guide us on our own journey to God – not dictate to us every step of the way. We are all His/Her children apparently.
And it was Jesus who showed us (or at least tried to) how to live together in the realm of the earth. So instead of being kind to each other and the planet, we’re told to get hot under the collar about what goes on in people’s sex lives.
So, as the planet starts to burn and people starve because of austerity, it’s what those same sex consenting couples are up to in the privacy of their bedrooms we should be worried about. Pathetic.
That’s a question for the times we are in isn’t it? Why are we so pathetic at the moment? Answer: ask a Fascist.
Anyway, Happy Easter too from an Atheist on the outside.
Thanks PSR
Thanks Richard for that beautifully expressed and uplifting message. If only …
And a happy Easter to you and your family from a lovely spring day here in Brittany.
Thank you
Enjoy the day
We will be out walking soon
Pasg Hapus Richard
And to all in Wales
Apt sentiments Richard.
Simon Jenkins was bemoaning the languishing of the 16000? churches in England – and how they could be put to good community use. You are not condoning the follies of the institution by a pilgrimage to Ely or any other cathedral – as we used to try to do every Easter.
A ‘sacred’ space for quiet contemplation – or for inspiration, and to try to envisage the end to division. So many examples of people just trying to get on with life – and to helpnig others.
This good Friday’s ‘pilgrimage’ was a perambulation around what used to be Royal hunting grounds on the fringes of North London with St John Passion in the ears.
Enjoy your walk.
Thanks
Walk done
My sons set an even faster pace than we usually do, 8 minutes per km
Pasg Hapus pawb!!
Amen to all you say, Richard.
And ‘yes’ to celebration, whether based in a faith journey or not. When folk celebrate it encompasses thanksgiving, and thanksgiving invites reflection on those matters over which lament is the appropriate response. I am afraid that many quarters of the Church have lost the gift of lament; our Jewish sisters and brothers ‘get it’ and we need to sit at their feet and learn from them.
We have much to lament for, and much forgiveness to seek; but and out of lament there can emerge the uncomfortable prophetic gift. You exercise this prophetic gift, Richard, speaking out against the sins of denial whether of economic justice, honesty in the public place, and as in some parts of the Church, its limiting view on human sexuality. Thank you for your courage and example.
Peter
I woke this morning not knowing I would write that. It was offered in the spirit of Quaker ministry.
I take your comment on lament in the same way.
Go well
Richard
Easter Sunday is the day Christians celebrate their belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified and resurrected three days later to wash away their sins, according to their Bible.
Will those, if any, who succeed we who lived in The Good Old Days, Who Never Had It So Good, in a Shining City On A Hill, called Us, be giving thanks for their salvation?
What might it cost Us?
Perhaps this much: https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-carbon-notes-3-four-trillion
Too much, perhaps?
What is the point of worship?
Is god’s ego so fragile that he needs people to go down on bended knee and to to be told that they love him? Or that they think he’s great?
Pathetic.
That is not what Quaker ministry is
What a great little article. Thank you.
Thanks
A very Happy Easter to you and your loved ones Richard.
I swing between living in hope and utter despair, but at least there is a swing.
Well said Richard. Your impassioned plea brought tears to my eyes. I heartily agree with everything you said. Thank you. Happy Easter.
And to you
What a beautiful post. Thank you, Richard. Happy Easter!
Thanks
Thanks Richard, contemplative words. I certainly love this time of year, the days getting longer and I’ve had a lovely weekend with my family of teenage boys and my partner. I’m often wondering the best way to go forward in these unequal times, and sometimes feel quite impotent, however now my boys are growing up it gives me great pleasure to hear them asking questions of the politics they come across, as well as the stereotyping of some of the people you mentioned that they see, and I hope this will be my enduring effort that my family will grow strong, open, kind and be able to call out the injustices they see.
Happy Easter
Mine are now in their early twenties
They can drive me round the bend
And we have the most fascinating conversations and laughs