Archbishop's Easter Interview with BBC South East Today

Archbishop in Interview with BBC South East Today

Listen to the Interview [2Mb]

Beverley Thompson, BBC News: And joining us live from Canterbury Cathedral is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams; and thank you very much for joining us this evening Dr Williams. Well as we said today is Maundy Thursday and I believe you are going to be washing the feet of some members of the congregation. Can you explain to us how significant this act is?

Archbishop of Canterbury: I think it is one of the most significant acts of the year because it is one of those times when we do absolutely and simply what Jesus told his friends and followers to do. He said, 'I've washed your feet, you wash one another's feet'. And so when I kneel down in front of theses members of the congregation, it's a way of saying to them and I hope to the world around that in the Christian world, any kind of power or responsibility given to anyone is there for one thing only and that's to serve others.

BT: Now earlier in the week we spoke to the Bishop of Rochester about his fears that Easter is being diluted because we are now living in this multi-faith society. Are we in danger of losing the Easter message altogether?

ABC: I think there is a risk because quite clearly Easter has dropped out of a lot of people's awareness. A lot of people simply don't know what the story of Good Friday is about and Easter is, you know, chocolates and bunnies and it doesn't quite have the same resonance that Christmas still has where I suppose more people probably still do know the Christmas story; so we are at a bit of a risk there.

BT: And what are you doing about it?

ABC: Well, tonight is one of the things we are doing about it. In some towns around the country there are teams of Christians going out offering to clean peoples shoes in shopping malls and so on which is a sort of modern equivalent of washing feet so I think we are trying to get the message out there.-

BT: It's certainly bringing it up to date. Of course this Easter time we are marking five years since the invasion of Iraq and you were a prominent opposer of the American lead war on terror but what are your feelings now five years on?

ABC: I feel we are a long way from any solution there. It's an illustration of how some kinds of military action when not thought through to their conclusion just don't deliver the goods and I'm particularly concerned at this time of year of course for my Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq. We heard last week about the murder of the Archbishop of Mosul and I think Christian communities there will be feeling more and more unsafe as time goes on and sadly one of the effects of action in the Middle East has been to make Christians feel more unsafe in their own homelands. I am also very conscious of our own service men and women serving abroad who need prayers at this time.

BT: Well so far, Dr Williams, it has been an eventful year for the Church. Several prominent members have come out with some controversial comments; your comments on Sharia law were widely criticised in the press, the Bishop of Rochester spoke out about 'no go areas' for non Muslims and a dilution of Christian message as we said before. Is it policy of the Church of England now to keep pushing the agenda in this way?

ABC: The Church of England has only one real agenda and that's proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's telling people about the sort of thing we are celebrating about this evening. Now some of the implications of that do have quite a lot of bearing on social problems, on how we relate to other faiths, on how we welcome people of other faiths; and of course working that out in practice is hugely complicated. It's not going to be done in a hurry but I think the Church is right both to stick to its core message and to jog peoples' elbows occasionally about where that might bite in contemporary society and the challenges it puts to us.

BT: Archbishop thank you very much for joining us this evening.