The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for prayers to bring an ‘end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East and the Gulf’ during her first Easter Day sermon.
Most Reverend Dame Sarah Mullally delivered her first Easter message at Canterbury Cathedral since she succeeded Justin Welby in the role, calling ‘with renewed urgency’ for peace.
She said ‘violence, division and insecurity’ were affecting the lives of ‘billions of people around the world’ and ‘many feel that their heart is in pieces’.
Dame Sarah, a former chief nursing officer for England, was formally installed as the 106th Archbishop just under two weeks ago, during which she said her teenage self could ‘never have imagined the future that lay ahead’.
On Sunday she called for peace in the Middle East, adding: ‘May all people of the region receive the peace, justice and freedom they long for.’
She told the congregation: ‘We know that violence, division and insecurity are affecting the lives of billions of people around the world. Many feel that their heart is in pieces. The bereft, the wounded, the refugee.
‘This week our gaze and our prayers have been turned towards the land where Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead.
‘Today, as we shout with joy that Christ is risen, let us pray and call with renewed urgency for an end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East and the Gulf.
The Archbishop of Canterbury called for prayers to bring an ‘end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East’ during a service on Easter Sunday
‘May our Christian sisters and brothers know and celebrate the hope of the empty tomb – and may all people of the region receive the peace, justice and freedom they long for.’
The US and Israel began the conflict with Iran on February 28, launching strikes which killed the nation’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has responded by attacking Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf.
Dame Sarah previously said she ‘longs’ for the ‘life-changing hope’ of Jesus Christ to reach those caught up in war and living in extreme poverty – and for those ‘on the front lines of the ever-worsening climate crisis’.
During her first address as Archbishop-designate in October, she said: ‘For our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, and all the peoples of the Middle East. For the people of Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and the DRC. May God end the horrors of war, comfort those who mourn, and bring hope to those living in despair.
Pope Leo XIV also delivered his Easter message, the Urbi et Orbi, on Sunday in Rome.
The pontiff appeared to target US President Donald Trump as he said: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down’.
He added the world was ‘growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it and becoming indifferent’ and urged ‘those who have the power to unleash wars’ to ‘choose peace’.
The 70-year-old Holy Father did not specify a specific conflict but called the conflict ‘atrocious’ on Palm Sunday last week.
Pope Leo XIV also called for peace during his Easter address in Rome
Also on Easter Sunday, one of America’s most conservative bishops called US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s references to Jesus to justify the war ‘problematic’.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, said the US strikes on Iran were not justified by Saint Augustine’s just war theory, in a CBS interview.
The theory says war is only morally permissible when punishing wrongdoing or defending the innocent and always with the ultimate aim of restoring peace rather than for revenge or conquest.
Archbishop Broglio said the administration’s justification rested on the threat of nuclear weapons – which Iran does not possess.
