'Life and hope' at heart of Church in Wales Easter message

"Life and hope" are at the heart of the Easter message by the Church in Wales' lead bishop.

The Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Rt Rev John Davies, said "all sorts of atrocities" taking place in the world were "crushing lives".

He highlighted the Palm Sunday bombing at two Coptic churches in Egypt, which he said was caused by a "loveless and barbaric ideology".

He held his Easter Sunday service at Brecon Cathedral at 11:00 BST.

Bishop Davies said the bombings of the two Coptic churches showed that being a Christian "comes at a high cost in some parts of the world".

They take risks, he said, because of their faith and their hope for a better way of life.

He called on people to commit to supporting people who are in "immediate need" and encourage those in positions of power and influence to address what he called the "mindless violence".

'Love and life'

He said: "Believer or non-believer, none could argue that the example and teachings of Jesus are anything but noble, decent and life-fulfilling.

"So, when we witness the love and future hopes of others being crushed, when we hear of cries of joy being changed to cries of anguish, when we see images of bodies torn apart by ruthless bombing and when we try to grasp something of the daunting catalogue of human need world-wide, we must not only be outraged.

"We must also be driven to try and be part of the answer to prayers made for that better way of living to become real."

He added: "Whatever you believe happened on the first Easter Day, you can surely interpret the surrounding stories as hope-filled expressions that love and life can always rise above hate and death.

"If that resonates with you as it does with me, then I urge you to share in both the responsibility of supporting those in so many places of so much need, and of encouraging those who work to confront those dark forces which daily disfigure so many lives in today's challenged world."