The message we want to send from this Eucharistic celebration is that we do not have to live like that ”“ in terror, in bloodshed. God has given us another way. He has opened a door of possibility that no-one can shut. He has announced that he will welcome all to the marriage feast of his Son ”“ and so we see that all, even our bitterest enemies, still have a place in his peace if they will only turn and be saved. Did you hear what St Paul said in today’s epistle? ‘Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are noble, right, pure, lovely and honourable.’ We need to feed ourselves and most especially to feed our young people with such things, to hold before us that great new possibility opened up by God for our minds to be transformed, to be excited not by the false thrills of violence and bloody conflict, by the overheated language of party conflict, but by the hope of joy and reconciliation.
And this also lays upon us the duty to keep alive our own concern for those lest able to help themselves. The Church of God is ”“ or should be ”“ the great hope of the poor; not just as a source of material help, important as that is, but as a source of hope and a guarantee of human dignity. The Church could not exist with any integrity if it forgot that every person is of immeasurable value in God’s eyes and so immeasurably worthy of our attention and service. In this country in recent years, you, our Anglican brothers and sisters, have been more and more active and courageous in this practical service, and in reminding the whole society of the universal dignity that the gospel implies. You have also been faithful to those who suffer from the HIV pandemic, which has ravaged a whole generation; and, like Christians elsewhere in Africa, you have been at the forefront of challenging the stigma that can make the suffering so much more bitter and can prevent people from facing the problem honestly. You know that the truth will make you free. To tell the truth about the sufferings and fears people endure, but also to tell the truth about their value in the sight of God ”“ this is the most effective way of banishing stigma and prejudice and superstition.
These are wonderfully apt words. They are also courageous. The Archbishop has spoken truthfully to corrupt power and to those who are bearing the brunt of it with bravery and faith. I am thankful. I wish he could do the same thing in the context of his own church within the West. Perhaps he will, as I pray he will indeed.