Anglican Identity

Dear Friends,

Easter 2021 will be very different from last year. Churches will be open, and we will be able to gather for worship on the Church’s holiest day as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Easter, we will be able to celebrate and feast with family and friends together, and not separated by the lockdown we were all part of in 2020; and our children will once again enjoy the thrill of an Easter egg hunt. This Easter, we will be free to travel and holiday locally during the term break.

Easter reminds us of the core message and promise of the Paschal season – that better days always await us. Even as we find ourselves on the threshold of the unprecedented and still unfolding ‘new normal’, we can walk on with hope and with confidence in Jesus’ victory over death and evil.

I wish you and your family a holy and joy-filled Easter, and a safe and refreshing term break.

The Most Reverend Kay Goldsworthy AO Archbishop of Perth

Easter messages

Easter is the most important Christian festival. It is Mission Accomplished.

Christians believe Jesus Christ is part of the trinitarian God, who came to live as one of us, was put to death on Good Friday and was restored to life, literally resurrected, on Easter Sunday morning. This unique event convinced his followers then and countless millions of people since that Jesus Christ is who he claimed to be: the Son of God.

It means what he said and did, recorded especially in the four gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, carry extraordinary significance. It demonstrates the extent of God’s love for all of us. It means we can still encounter the risen Christ, as St Paul famously did. It enables anyone, who so wishes, to experience God’s grace and it provides warrant for a quality of hope and of joy, sometimes in the face of overwhelming odds, that is unsurpassable.

The Right Reverend Dr Ian Coutts Bishop of Bunbury In an historical context, as for many, but definitely in my lifetime, I have never experienced an Easter the way we did in 2020. I recall the sadness around the Holy week services and how many felt helpless and alone, not being able to celebrate these holy mysteries at this most holy time.

Yet it was during this time last year when we began to realise the gifts we have in time, purpose and event and how we should treasure the moments of being able to meet, to gather and to engage in a personal way. Not being able to make a ‘big fuss’ over the events of Easter in the way that we normally do it, reminds us of the events of Easter as it happened so many years ago.

There was the cross and the empty tomb signifying death and life, sadness and hope. For some the cross was foolishness and the empty tomb probably made no sense. For us it is the fact that death and sadness can bring about life and hope, which is so much needed in our world today.

May Easter 2021 bring new life and hope in the midst of sadness, pain and even uncertainty and may we all know the transforming power of God as we are filled with the love of God and love for each other.

Every blessing,

The Right Reverend Clarence E. Bester Bishop of Wangaratta

The Anglican Schools Commission Inc. PO Box 2520 Mt Claremont WA 6010 P (08) 9286 0290 F (08) 9384 5023 E info@ascschools.edu.au W www.ascschools.edu.au