Archbishop of Canterbury will focus on hardship in Easter 2014 sermon

The Archbishop of Canterbury will use his Easter sermon to highlight the hardship of people suffering from conflict around the world and in Britain.

Speaking later today from Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop Justin Welby will say: "In Syria mothers cry for their children and husbands. In the Ukraine neighbours cry because the future is precarious and dangerous. In Rwanda tears are still shed each day as the horror of genocide is remembered.

"In this country, even as the economy improves there is weeping in broken families, in people ashamed to seek help from food banks, or frightened by debt. Asylum seekers weep with loneliness and missing far away families. Mary continues to weep across the world."

Delivering only his second Easter message since becoming head of the Church of England, the Most Rev Justin Welby will also praise the resilience of persecuted Christian minorities around the globe.

"Their certainty that Jesus is alive enables them to face all horrors with joy," the Archbishop will say.

"I remember sitting in a room with the Bishop who had come over from Pakistan soon after the attack in September on a church in Peshawar. I asked how Christians were coping with the fear that such attacks brought, and wondered if there had been anyone in church the week following the attack. 'Oh yes' the bishop replied, 'there were three times as many people the next week'."

"Such action is made possible only by the resurrection. The persecuted church flourishes because of the resurrection."