LONDON — On a normal Easter Sunday, Justin Welby presides at the Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, a soaring, sublime edifice and a thousand-year-old World Heritage Site dating to the 11th century and the Norman conquest.
On this Sunday, the archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, led services from his kitchen table in his London flat, via YouTube.
With his wife, Caroline, serving beside him, you could see the couple’s cupboards and counter tops.
The recorded video was basic, nothing fancy, but heartfelt. Welby fingered a match from a box and lit the Easter candle, a symbol of Christ’s resurrection, and he said the old words, “Alpha and Omega, all time belongs to him, and all ages … ”
In his sermon, the archbishop spoke of suffering and death and light. He prayed for the prime minister, all others who have been hospitalized, and those who caring for the sick and grieving for the dead.
“Even in the dark days of this Easter, we can feed on hope. We can dream of what our country and our world will look like after the pandemic,” Welby said.
“Once this epidemic is conquered here and elsewhere, we cannot be content to go back to what was before as if all was normal,” he said. “There needs to be a resurrection of our common life, a new normal, something that links to the old, but is different and more beautiful.”
In the chat scrolling alongside the streaming video, participants posted greetings of “Happy Easter!” with smiley face emoji sent from Britain, Japan, Australia and America. From Suffolk, a viewer wrote: “Thankful for giving peace in this crazy time.”
Live updates: Some churches defy restrictions on Easter; coronavirus will stalk ‘human race for quite a long time,’ WHO special envoy says
0 Comments: