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24th August 2005

The Rt Rev James Jones

Good Morning

Yesterday saw the funeral of Brother Roger, founder of the Taize community. And tomorrow will see the funeral of Anthony Walker, here in Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.

Both followers of Jesus Christ. One young, the other old. One black, the other white. One laid to rest in rural Burgundy, the other in urban Toxteth. Both killed. One by a knife, the other by an axe.

The violence of their deaths somehow heightens the innocence of their lives. For they hurt no-one. On the contrary, these two brothers – through Christ - were as innocent as doves.

It will now be for the courts to determine the exact circumstances and the guilt of their alleged assailants. Meanwhile, we who’d like to spend August in summery mood find the season shattered by these evil deeds.

Is evil too strong a word? Maybe. For some, it’ll sound too absolute. For me, it speaks of there being, at large in the world, a spiritual force antagonistic to all that is true, good and beautiful.

It was the sheer unprovoked nature of the attacks on Brother Roger and Anthony Walker that made me feel the determination of evil to rid the world of those who prefer light to darkness, love to hatred, forgiveness to vengeance.

Here on Merseyside this past week thousands of young Christians have been working to transform local communities, doing everything from restoring local parks to running Holiday clubs. They met each morning in a big tent to worship and each evening in a park for a Rock Concert. One of the very first young people to sign up for this event was Anthony Walker.

His absence has made the hearts of these young people even more passionate to set their face against evil.

Of course the danger of such a word is that down the centuries we’ve used it to demonise certain individuals or groups of people. But it was Alexander Solzhenitsyn who wisely warned that ‘the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.’ It’s why Jesus urged us all to pray for protection.

He had his own encounters. And out of his own experience of its personal power he called us all to pray ‘deliver us from evil’. It was prayed yesterday at Brother Roger’s funeral. We shall pray it tomorrow at Anthony’s, believing humbly and hopefully that the ultimate deliverance from the knife, the axe and the cross – is the Resurrection.