In his meditation for Easter Sunday, Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, reflects on how the call to ‘Go out, again and again’ to spread the Good News brings holiness to us all

The artistic life of Sir Arthur Sullivan seemed to be a struggle between success and seriousness. While his operettas, co-written with W. S. Gilbert, garnered the former they were often sneered at by London’s cultural elite.

One of Sullivan’s attempts to grapple with more serious matters came in 1873 with The Light of the World, an oratorio charting Christ’s life, death and resurrection – a work inspired by Holman Hunt’s devotional painting of the same name.

“May the light of Christ, rising in glory, banish all darkness from our hearts and minds,” says the liturgy of the Easter Vigil as the paschal candle is enkindled amid the dark of the church. Sullivan wasn’t wrong. If Christ is truly risen, then there is no more “serious” or significant event in human history.