Easter sermons dominated by conflict

The uncertain future of Iraq dominated Easter sermons delivered by Christian leaders.

In his first such message to the world's 70 million Anglicans, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned against religious certainty in times of conflict which exposed a "longing to be utterly sure of our rightness".

"We want to stand still and be reassured, rather than moving faithfully with Jesus along a path into new life whose turnings we don't know in advance," he told the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral.

Pope John Paul II used his 25th Easter address to a crowd gathered in St Peter's Square, Rome, to demand a central role in Iraq's reconstruction for the Iraqi people. "Peace in Iraq!" he cried, and when the crowd, estimated at 100,000, cheered, he repeated the phrase several times. "May the Iraqi people," he went on, "become the protagonists of the collective rebuilding of their country."

The Pope, who is 83, vigorously opposed the war in Iraq and his diplomatic efforts to prevent it included welcoming Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's Deputy Prime Minister, to the Vatican.

Speaking at Westminster Cathedral, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, leader of Britain's five million Catholics, asked his congregation to reflect on the victims of war on both sides. He added: "We should pray for the people of Iraq, whose terrible suffering in these past years must now give way to real hope for a better future guaranteed, at least in part, by the international community."

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Dr Finlay Macdonald, said the price for getting rid of Saddam had been "very high". At Camperdown parish church in Dundee, he said the "obscene sums of money" spent on bombs could have done much to relieve global suffering.