CAPTION: Some churches have been flying the Ukrainian flag in solidarity for the people of Ukraine
Bishop of Exeter’s Easter Message Flies the Flag of Hope
On Easter Day, from church towers across Devon, you may traditionally spot the flag of St George flying.
We call it the flag of St George, but originally it was the flag of medieval Jerusalem. English soldiers brought it back with them from the Holy Land, along with a devotion to St George, the early Christian soldier-martyr.
As a result, George became patron saint of England.
Medieval paintings of the resurrection often represent the risen Christ, stepping onto the edge of his tomb, triumphantly holding the flag in his wounded hand as a symbol of his victory over death. At his feet are invariably soldiers lying fast asleep, posted by Pontius Pilate to guard the tomb of this crucified messiah, the pretend King of the Jews.
The Bishop of Exeter says he finds hope in people’s acts of generosity and kindness
The resurrected Christ cuts a strong figure, immensely powerful as he rises from the grave and strides into life.
Except that this year, if you look up, you may see not the flag of St George flying from flagpoles and church towers, but the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine flying in solidarity with this brave and suffering nation.
The devastating war in Ukraine and the atrocities being reported on a daily basis cast dark shadows over Europe and our Easter celebrations this year. The humanitarian crisis the war has unleashed has shattered the complacency of the West and threatens the peace and stability of Europe.
In the words of St Paul, ‘we weep with those who weep’. And we weep not only with the people of Ukraine, but with good, upstanding Russian citizens whose knowledge of the situation is mediated through the propaganda machine of the Kremlin.
Were he alive, I think George Orwell, author of the political satires Animal Farm and 1984, would offer a devastating critique of the power of information to control an entire population.
The Bishop of Exeter will be leading a number of services during Holy Week.
Meanwhile, on the home front, we have our own challenges to contend with. The cost of food and fuel bills are going up relentlessly and Covid cases continue to be an all-time high. We now realise that we are only in the foothills of working out what ‘living with this virus’ is going to mean.
What hope is there in a situation like this? Is there any cause for joy this Easter?
Without glossing over the bitter realities of war, I find hope in the generosity of the thousands of people who have signed-up to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees. I find hope in the joy of Ukrainian musicians making music in the rubble of their city. I find hope in the Ukrainian national football coach determined to help his team qualify for the World Cup.
I find hope in our towns, villages and cities, with ordinary people doing extraordinary things: acts of kindness and generosity that speak of the compassion of God.
I find hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
On Good Friday we reflect on the vulnerability of Jesus, on Christ crucified, whose cross is planted in the mire and suffering of the world. But Christ the victim is also Christ the victor – the one who triumphed over death.
‘Lo, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb .
Lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom.’
The resurrection of Jesus is God’s promise that his love is deeper and higher and wider than the worst evil that anyone can commit and the most terrible suffering that we might have to endure. The resurrection is God’s promise that there is nothing in the whole of creation outside his redeeming love.
As St Paul put it in his Letter to the Romans: ‘For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
(Romans 8.38,39)
The Rt. Rev’d Robert Atwell, Bishop of Exeter
