Bishop's Easter message

* The Right Revd Dr Gregory K Cameron, Bishop of

St Asaph.

The Bishop of St Asaph says Easter is about "loosening the chains that bind us, whether they are physical or not".

 

In his Easter message, the Right Revd Dr Gregory K Cameron is urging Christians to be bold in breaking the chains of injustice and not be afraid to confront the world of politics.

 

In it he says: “It is sometimes said that preachers should stay in the pulpit and not stray into politics, but the truth is that society can’t be walled off from religion; Christ says, where there is a chain, break it in my name. 

 

“I hope that means a Church at the forefront of fighting those things that make human life less than full – in whichever form they take.  Would that we could all become chain breakers like Christ this Easter.”

 

The full text of his Easter message is:

 

I am a Christian because I believe it when Jesus said: The Truth shall set you free (John 8.32 if you want to look it up).  Such a Truth has not just to set me free, but to bring liberty to all those who are in chains, whether those chains are physical, poverty, injustice, or war; or metaphysical, guilt, failure, sin.

 

The truth I think he is referring to is a fundamental truth about creation: that there is a purpose, a person, God, who sustains the universe, and that God is love.  I realise that I can’t go into a laboratory to prove such a statement, but it is for me the best and most fundamental way in which to make sense of everything else.  And this truth sets me free, because it gives me a reason to live and to love, and a passion to fight for the breaking of chains everywhere.

 

Easter is about Jesus breaking the chains that bind humanity.  It is about a man who was weighed down with every burden that humanity could carry, but who rose up in divine power to new life.  And it commits me, and every Christian, to be breakers of chains like him.  It is sometimes said that preachers should stay in the pulpit and not stray into politics, but the truth is that society can’t be walled off from religion; Christ says, where there is a chain, break it in my name.  I hope that means a Church at the forefront of fighting those things that make human life less than full – in whichever form they take.

 

Would that we could all become chain breakers like Christ this Easter.