May 2009

The Hay festival this month will be host to two archbishops: our own Archbishop Rowan, and also Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Archbishop Tutu was, of course, the Nobel Prize winner for peace in 1984 when he was the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, a couple of years before he became the first black archbishop of Capetown. Archbishop Tutu's struggle against apartheid and then, following South Africa's general elections, his chairing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, giving further scope for his lifelong commitment to forgiveness and co-operation, have rightly earned him universal respect and acclaim.

He was described recently in our local press as "a man who seems to have a joyful cloud around him", which I thought was a beautiful and right observation. He has suffered with his people; experienced prejudice and hostility; struggled always peacefully for right and justice but with reconciliation. He is an example to us all in so many ways, not least in his Christian faith undergirding and empowering all that he is and does.

We are living in Eastertide. We continue to celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead. We know that we cannot do so other than as people who have first stood with him at the foot of his cross, receiving his forgiveness and love.

Like Archbishop Tutu (and Archbishop Rowan) we wish to "have a joyful cloud around" us. Also, like them, we know that that kind of joy, true joy, cannot be experienced by escaping the pains and hurts of the world and our own lives, but only by living through them.

We do not have to face apartheid, thank God, but we do have other issues to face in our own lives, locally and nationally. And prejudice in all kinds of ways continues too. Many are experiencing redundancy, shorter working weeks, reduced income, as well as pains and hurts from illness, accident, family breakdown and other harms.

It was on the cross that Jesus showed the fullest extent of God's love. He showed and lived it in the pain, through the pain. Easter joy is the reality that nothing can kill that kind of love. It is God's gift to us, when we ask him for it. It is his continuing gift to his Easter, rainbow people, including you and me, and our Archbishops.