WE WILL not be “a people paralysed by the past” Church of Ireland
primate Archbishop Alan Harper has said in his Easter message.
“On the
day before Mothering Sunday, a young officer of the PSNI was killed by
an explosive device. The sorrow and condemnation of that event was
registered in every corner of this island and much further afield.
“The
pictures beamed out across the media of the honour guard for Constable
Ronan Kerr drawn up outside the church in Beragh, Co Tyrone, where his
funeral took place, were of a community united and galvanised by the
atrocity,” he said. People “were there to witness and to demonstrate
that things have changed irrevocably and that we will not be a people
paralysed by the past”.
He continued: “I cannot but reflect that
this same murdered policeman, in his commitment and eagerness to serve
the whole community, would have responded to anyone who might call upon
him for help and that such help would have been offered as readily to
those who murdered him as to any other member of society.”
Archbishop
Harper recalled that “the first words of the risen Lord, repeated over
and over, were ‘Peace be with you.’ Let that word of peace bless the
lips of everyone in Ireland this Easter: the peace of the Lord be always
with you!”
In a strongly worded joint Easter statement, church
leaders in “Derry/Londonderry” expressed dismay that: “Incredibly there
are those who wish to extinguish hope for this community – the hope of
peace. In its place, the only offer they have for their neighbour is
destructive acts that are rooted in bitterness.”
Catholic bishop
Séamus Hegarty, Church of Ireland bishop Ken Good, Derry and Donegal
Presbyterian Moderator Rev Robert Buick, First Derry Presbyterian
minister Rev David Latimer and Carlisle Road Methodist minister Rev
Peter Murray said that “as church leaders from the ancient city of
Derry/Londonderry we join our voices with the settled will of the
people”.
They said: “We refuse to have our hope for this community
extinguished.”
The power of the Christian message at Easter “is
that death does not have the last word. Its power is finally broken by
the death and resurrection of Christ. As Christian leaders we declare
that something else has been broken. It is the historic cycle whereby
political difference on this island has been addressed by violence. We
are in a process of building peace with our neighbour and are in no
doubt that a historic cycle is broken. Death will not have the last
word.”
They represented “different religious traditions that agree
on many matters and occasionally not on others. Our ability and
commitment to speak as one about our strong and confident hope for the
future is symbolic of the new future for our community.”
They
said: “For those diminishing few whose contribution to our humanity is
violence, we remind them of its utter futility in the face of the
settled will of the community.”