Easter messages from Shrewsbury's bishops

Rt Reverend Mark Davies, Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury:

The first disciples made their way to the tomb "very early on the first day of the week." It was "still dark," St John observes. Yet, the darkness in which they walked was not merely the last shades of night; it was surely the shadows of their own despair.

Before the emptiness of Christ's tomb, as the sun rose on that first Easter morning, those women and men came to see and believe.

"Till this moment," St John notes, "they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead".

The English people came similarly to see and believe some 14 centuries ago in a way which changed the way we, today, see the whole of human life.

Today in our country many consciences struggle amid the shadows as they try to distinguish between good and evil in everything which concerns the value of human life itself.

In a matter of weeks, a Bill will be brought before Parliament aimed at legalising assisted suicide.

This Bill will seek to change long-established laws which uphold the sanctity of human life and protecting some of the weakest in society.

It is hard to understand that, at a time when there has been so much public concern about the care of the most vulnerable in our hospitals and care homes, we would be contemplate weakening, rather than strengthening the legal protection offered to some of the weakest and most vulnerable.

How much we need what Blessed John Paul II described as that "ever new light" shed by Christ on the true way of love and mercy "which our common humanity calls for".

In the run-up to Easter this year, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have each acknowledged publicly the difference Christianity makes to our country.

At a time when the Christian contribution to our past – and, indeed, our present – is often air-brushed from memory, this is surely a welcome recognition.

Pope Francis insists the Church can never be regarded as a sort of NGO, a merely humanitarian agency. "If we do not confess Jesus Christ" the Holy Father says, we would no longer be the Church; everything we built would be like sandcastles if it were not based on our faith in Christ.

Christianity is that meeting, that encounter with Christ; the same meeting with His Cross and Resurrection to which the English people came at the beginning of their history.

It is to this encounter that you and I are called.

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Rt Reverend Mark Rylands, Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury:

Easter is the defining moment. We often hear about 'the defining moment' in the life of a celebrity, in the career of a politician, or in the football season: remember Adele singing 'Someone like You' at the Brits? or Maria Miller's 32-second apology in the House of Commons?

And I wonder if that late goal against Man City last Sunday was the moment that Liverpool won the Premiership?

Christians believe Easter is the defining moment in the history of the world.

It's that important.

Because of Easter, we know some mind-blowing truths. God created the universe and he loves each one of us deeply.

Our lives matter to God. When anyone struggles in poverty, suffers cruelty or feels pain, it wounds God.

We know all these things because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

He had no great wealth, no big job, nothing to say he was great.

Yet today there is far more evidence for the life of Jesus than the life of Julius Caesar. Christ died the death of a criminal – by crucifixion. Deserted by his friends, betrayed by one of his own followers, he was given a trial with trumped up charges and then sentenced to death one dark Friday 2,000 years ago nailed to a wooden scaffold between two thieves.

But it didn't end there.

Something extraordinary happened on the Sunday. And that's why we call this Friday 'Good'. Jesus was dead on Friday; alive on Sunday – the defining moment in human history!

Hundreds of people saw him, spoke to him, touched him, after he had died and then returned to life. Read about it in the books of the Bible – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts.

The event of Easter changes everything: in our towns and villages – in our lives – right here in Shropshire today. Christians believe that, on that cross, Jesus absorbed the evil of the world and defeated the power of sin and death.

Jesus took the impact of all our wrongdoing on himself. As one writer put it: 'By his wounds, we have been saved'.

So whatever your situation, however bad it may seem, do not give up. There is real hope. That is the message of Easter – love is stronger than hate, good will defeat evil and life will overcome death.

The latest figures show some of our churches are growing again. Why not come and join us in giving thanks to our saviour Jesus this Easter – for his sacrifice, and for the hope and joy it has given the world. Could this Easter be your defining moment?

I wish you a joyful Easter. May God be with you.