Prime Minister Keir Starmer has issued his 2025 Easter message, offering warm wishes to Christians across the UK and abroad, while praising the enduring message of Easter as one in every of “hope, redemption and renewal.”
“As Lent involves an end and we move into the Easter weekend, I would like to wish Christians all over the place remembering the death and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ a really completely happy Easter,” the Prime Minister said. “The story of Easter is central to the Christian faith: it’s a story of hope, redemption and renewal.”
In his message, Starmer paid tribute to the work of Christian communities across the country, particularly those that embody the teachings of Christ through grassroots acts of service.
“I also need to thanks for the ways through which you follow Christ’s example of affection and compassion in serving your communities,” he said.
“Whether through night shelters, youth clubs, toddler groups, family support, look after the elderly or chaplaincy support, and in a large number of other ways, you show steadfast commitment and care.”
While offering his Easter well-wishes, Starmer also took a moment to acknowledge persecuted Christians worldwide: “This Easter, as churches hold special services across the UK, and gather to have fun with family and friends, we remember those Christians facing hardship, persecution or conflict world wide who cannot have fun freely.”
Though not a believer himself and the UK’s first openly atheist Prime Minister, Starmer has previously expressed admiration for faith’s social and communal power.
In a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, he said, “I’m not of religion, I don’t imagine in God — but I can see the facility of religion and the way in which it brings people together.”
Meanwhile, King Charles III’s Easter message shared on Maundy Thursday drew mixed reactions.
Focusing on themes of affection, humility and shared humanity, he said: “One of the puzzles of our humanity is how we’re able to each great cruelty and great kindness.
“This paradox of human life runs through the Easter story and within the scenes that every day come before our eyes — at one moment, terrible images of human suffering and, in one other, heroic acts in war-torn countries where humanitarians of all kinds risk their very own lives to guard the lives of others.”
The King invoked Jesus’ act of foot-washing on Maundy Thursday as an emblem of boundless love and humility.
However, considering his position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and ‘Defender of the Faith,’ it was his inclusive language – referencing Judaism, Islam, and other faiths – that drew criticism in some quarters.
“The love He showed when he walked the Earth reflected the Jewish ethic of caring for the stranger and people in need, a deep human instinct echoed in Islam and other religious traditions, and within the hearts of all who seek the great of others,” the King said.
Critics on social media questioned the appropriateness of bringing up other religions in a message earmarked for Christianity’s most sacred festival.
One commenter wrote, “Is this a joke?”
Another remarked, “Is he not the top of the Church of England? When it’s my son’s birthday I don’t wish my daughter completely happy birthday too [SIC]. Let Easter just be Easter.”
Such comments echo backlash to the King’s 2024 Christmas message, where he similarly implied that every one religions are essentially an identical.
That message was charged with promoting “syncretism” and “do-it-yourself, multi-faith religion.”
Despite the web criticism, the King and Queen have continued the centuries-old Maundy Thursday tradition, this yr visiting Durham Cathedral to distribute Maundy money to 152 recipients — 76 men and 76 women, corresponding to the King’s age.
The recipients, chosen from across the Diocese of Durham, the Province of Scotland, York and Wales, were honoured for his or her Christian service.
“Maundy Thursday is about remembering the service and sacrifice of Jesus and it can be so special to have fun in such a memorable way those that live out the instance of Jesus today,” stated Dean of Durham, The Very Rev Dr Philip Plyming.
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