Williams delivers Easter Message to Raise the Anglican Communion with Christ

The Archbishop of Canterbury has given an Easter message to the worldwide Anglican Communion. Archbishop Rowan Williams uses his message to talk about and discuss the document that resulted from the recent meeting between Anglican Primates in Northern Ireland.

Dr Williams spoke about how the document had been the centre of a great deal of debate recently. However, he pointed out that "one paragraph has barely been mentioned by any commentator, inside the Church or outside. The Primates repeated and underlined their commitment to the Millennium Development Goals defined by the United Nations - including the hope to reduce poverty and hunger by a half before 2015."

In addition the head of the Anglican Church said that commitments were renewed by the Primates towards HIV/Aids education and prevention. He also noted how the Primates had called for similar work to commence to deal with the spiralling threats of TB and malaria.

Dr Williams said, "Our Christian faith is a faith in the rising of Jesus Christ from the tomb in his glorified body; and so it is about leading lives that take the life of the body seriously.

"The words for 'salvation' and 'health' cannot be distinguished in most languages, and this should remind us that faith in Christ has to be bound up with care for suffering bodies as well as suffering souls."

The Archbishop went on to confess that only Christ can make us whole in every aspect of our lives. He said, "First we have to begin to learn what it is for each one of us to receive healing: quietly and thankfully, we must let our wounds be exposed to the physician and allow his life to 'sink into' our lives. And then we must act as if we believed we had truly received authority to heal - in all sorts of different ways."

One of the hidden features of the Anglican Church over the past twenty years, Dr Williams told, has been the "dramatic revival of the ministry of healing as a routine part of the life of thousands of congregations."

Dr Rowan Williams was quick to redirect the debating Communion towards the true way in which he wanted the Primates’ communiqué to be interpreted. He pointed out, "It should really shock us that a document like the Primates' communiqué has been read as if it were only intended to be about our internal struggles. It means that we have not been heard to speak about the Resurrection."

To end his passionate Easter message, the Church of England head concluded, "This Easter, let us, as Paul tells us in Colossians 3, try to live as if we had truly been raised with Christ - clothed 'with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience' and showing all these things in our priorities for action to heal suffering bodies."