Christians throughout the Middle East and Cyprus have been urged to celebrate happiness, despite the troubles of the pandemic, in an Easter Message from the Primate – leading bishop – of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Archbishop Michael Lewis, who is also bishop of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, said in his Easter message that it was not wrong for Christians to feel gloom but that Holy Week was the time for exultation – for deep joy.

His Province takes in some of the world’s most troubled places including as it does the Diocese of Jerusalem which covers Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, serving Cyprus, the Arabian peninsula and Iraq and the Diocese of Iran.

Easter is celebrated this year on April 4 by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.

Archbishop Lewis’s Easter Message can be found in full on YouTube by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiq3vLwrOgg