08.04.2020
Take Part in the #GlobalSonRise Campaign on Easter Morning
The Archbishop of Dublin has given his backing to the Anglican Communion Office’s #GlobalSonRise social media campaign to proclaim the good news of the resurrection. Anglicans around the world are being asked to post a video or picture with a message on social media at 5am on Easter Day to announce that Christ is Risen.
Archbishop Michael Jackson pointed out that many Christian churches throughout Ireland hold SonRise services outdoors on Easter morning. As with other forms of worship during Holy Week and Easter 2020, these traditional services cannot take place.
“We are being asked, as part of our civic duty, not to gather physically this Easter in order to comply with the measures to curb the spread of Covid–19. But this does not mean our Christian discipleship stops. Posting a video or an image at dawn on Easter morning to proclaim the Risen Lord is something we can do publicly to show that we are Easter people,” he comments.
The Archbishop suggests a message along the following lines: “Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed. Mary recognizes the Risen Lord when he calls her by name. Please God let us not forget the human courtesies in the depth of the global anguish of the coronavirus.”
Outlining the global campaign, the Director of Communications for the Anglican Communion, Gavin Drake, explains: “As with many other forms of public worship, the traditional SonRise services can’t take place this year in many parts of the world, because of the restrictions on movement designed to curb the spread of the Coronavirus Covid–19. While primarily an act of worship, they are also a public affirmation and proclamation of the risen Christ.
“News bulletins will rightly tell the story of closed church buildings and cancelled services. But we want another message to get out: the message that Christ is Risen. This is so central to our faith it is important that this message doesn’t get lost amidst the reports of locked and empty churches.”
Gavin suggests that the appearance of #GlobalSonRise messages across the world at 5am in every time zone would offer a glimpse of hope amidst the fear and despair caused by Covid–19 and the restrictions which we now find ourselves living under.