Easter speaks to the ‘displaced, oppressed and forgotten’, say Moth and Mullally

‘Easter proclaims that even in the darkest places, God is at work bringing life,’ said Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally.

The vulnerability and resilience of refugees give a “powerful image” of Easter, Archbishop of Westminster Richard Moth said after meeting refugees supported by Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK at the Hurtado Jesuit Centre in Wapping.

“In this great week, we see our salvation, and that salvation is about moving from death to life,” he reflected. “And for those who find themselves taking the journey of the refugee, it’s a journey we pray, and we hope, from the edges of death to life, and that’s what the Resurrection is about.

“If you think of what we’re going to be celebrating very soon now, on Easter Day, we find Mary and the women waiting at the tomb.

“That sense of expectation of the coming of the Lord in his Resurrection, and then going out to share that news with others, that’s a wonderful moment in the Easter story. The women going to the apostles and saying, ‘Look, the Lord has risen!’

“Listening to some of the stories today about the experiences of women finding themselves in refugee situations, the vulnerability that they find in hotels or camps or wherever it is that they find themselves living, in a sense that vulnerability, being open to what the Lord has to say to us, is in itself a powerful image of that Easter day.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally also said in an ecumenical Easter message that the hope of the Resurrection is not “abstract”: “We proclaim it in a world marked by deep suffering and conflict.

“We think of those living amid war and violence – across the Middle East, in Ukraine, in Sudan, and in so many other places of conflict – and of the churches of the Holy Land, bearing faithful witness under immense strain.

“We remember all who are displaced, oppressed, or forgotten, and we renew our calling as Christians to stand with the marginalised and to serve those most in need.”

Archbishop Moth continued, “I think our response needs to be, in a sense, unchanging. In a way, it must always be the same one. The person standing before me is the image of God. That’s unchanging.

“I recognise in this person in front of me the presence of God in the world and that’s the place from which I must act. It’s Matthew 25: ‘you were a stranger and I made you welcome’.

“So many of those who make the journey of the refugee, they find themselves sick, they find themselves without clothes, they find themselves without food, find themselves in detention. So that text from Matthew is so applicable in every sense to those with whom JRS UK journeys.”

JRS UK provides advice, legal support, accommodation, food, clothing, toiletries, and financial assistance to refugees, as well as a befriending programme, classes and activities, and outreach to people held in immigration detention.

Archbishop Mullally also emphasised Christ’s identification with human suffering: “God does not stand distant from human pain, but enters into it, bears it, and transforms it.

“The cross stands firm while the world changes. Empires rise and fall, cultures shift, and societies transform, yet the love of God revealed in Christ crucified and risen remains constant.

 “The cross and the empty tomb together tell us that suffering and death do not have the final word. Suffering and pain are penultimate; ultimate is the loving embrace of God in glory. Easter proclaims that even in the darkest places, God is at work bringing life.”

Archbishop Mullally also said that the Resurrection is the “common foundation and calling” for those engaged in the work of Christian unity.

“Our divisions, though real, do not define the final reality of the Church,” she said. “The risen Christ continues to draw us to himself and to one another, and in him we find both the courage and the confidence to walk together.

 “Often, this work unfolds quietly – in prayer, in friendship, in hospitality, in shared witness. Yet these small and faithful acts are seeds of a greater harvest, signs of the deeper unity we already share in Christ.”

Welcoming refugees is ‘key’ to the gospel, says Archbishop of Westminster

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