Bishop of Salisbury shares Easter message
"We're born to be social people" says the Bishop in his message of hope
The Bishop of Salisbury has been sharing his Easter message with us for this Sunday.
It comes as many enjoy a four-day weekend, able to meet up with six others outside after restrictions eased last week.
It's also a week before before restrictions are eased further and many religious and non-religious services can take place with more people once more.
From 12th April weddings can take place with 15 people, as well as some receptions, and funerals will have a capacity of 30 people. Wakes will have a limit of 15 people.
The Bishop says these restrictons have been taxing on many, including people of faith who have been unable to their respective places of worship.
He said:
"I think everybody's found this last lockdown quite difficult to deal with. It helps that the days are getting longer and that spring's in the air. There's a sense of new life and we can see lockdown coming towards an end.
"All of that helps. I think people have had a hard time of it. In a way, it's been a way of the cross hasn't it? There's been a lot of grief, people having to cope with some unexpected deaths and bereavements and not being able to handle funerals in the same kind of way. That's felt a way of the cross.
"It seems to be in Holy Week that the sense is of God coming among us in Jesus Christ and there's hope in that because we're not on our own. Actually, God shares our sorrows and our joys with us and that's really the story of Christ on the cross.
"In the end what matters? We know our health matters but we know even more that the way we live matters that we care for one another, that we love one another. So that simple command 'Love God and love your neighbour as yourself', actually there's new life in that.
"Of course, there's hope, and we can see that the strength of community is one of the things that gets us through it."
He added:
"What church has done brilliantly is that service of the community, that loving care of people, that looking after neighbours, looking after those who are left out.
"The hope is in the way we learn to love God, love our neighbour and love ourselves, to love the creation we're set in.
"We're born to be social people aren't we, that's been one of the big deprivations, the isolation of this lockdown. It's not natural, it's not the way we are.
"But actually, isn't it amazing we've been able to hold on to relationships?
"We've got now to get back to building relationships again and we can start to do that slowly, and what a relief it will be."