Bishop Peter’s Easter Sunday message celebrates the selfless service and the community spirit demonstrated by millions over the past year.
The country has seen “a new spirit of people coming together and working together” he says, in a video reflection released for use in Easter Sunday services across the diocese.
Though this Easter we are aware of the challenges faced by people around the world because of the pandemic, there are signs of hope, and through the Resurrection, a purpose to keep us going, he says.
Millions of people have suffered because of Covid, whether bereaved, lonely or isolated, or worried about jobs, or unemployment, or how to feed their loved ones, he says, but in the midst of challenges there have been “wonderful signs of hope too”.
Key workers, including those in schools and hospitals and care homes, in shops and in foodbanks, “have given themselves selflessly”.
“There is much to give thanks for even in the midst of the challenges of Covid, and much to give us hope.”
The Resurrection we celebrate on Easter Sunday gives us a purpose as we realise that Jesus Christ has risen for us, and that new life is possible.
Bishop Peter said Jesus’ words to Mary Magdalene, to ‘Go and tell my disciples I have risen from the dead’ gives us our purpose this Easter, and every Easter.
“That message of going out comes to us down the centuries” he says.
This is Bishop Peter’s last Easter Sunday as Bishop of Bath and Wells, as he is taking early retirement at the end of May, as he continues his recovery from acute myeloid leukaemia.
Christian communities around the diocese have been marking Easter, as many return to Church for a service for the first time in months.
See the Angels of Joy in Wellington and art installations for Holy Week in Glastonbury. You can also join us online for our Holy Week reflections.