Good Friday in a Time of War

Holy Week stands as the period when the church deliberately steps into the heart of human suffering: the pain of betrayal, the sting of abandonment, the injustice of judicial murder, and the haunting silence of God. The significance of this week lies in the enormity of what it represents. In the Eastern tradition, it is called Megale Hebdomas, the Great Week, precisely because it confronts the most profound events in the Christian story.

This year, the Great Week unfolds beneath the shadow of war. The bombs falling on the ancient cities of Iran — on Isfahan, on Tehran, on Shiraz — fall on a people of poets and mystics, of Rumi’s reed bed and Hafiz’s wine, of a civilisation that has carried the name of God in Persian for longer than most of our traditions can remember. We are required, as people of faith, to hold a distinction the gospel itself demands: between those who govern in the name of God while suppressing their own people, and those who have borne the weight of that governance — the women who have marched unveiled into the guns, the young who have died in the streets, the families driven into exile by a theocracy that has waged its own long war upon them.

The bombs falling on the ancient cities of Iran—on Isfahan, on Tehran, on Shiraz—do not descend on abstract targets, but upon a people who have, for centuries, nurtured a civilisation of poets and mystics. These are the lands of Rumi’s reed bed and Hafiz’s wine, landscapes steeped in a tradition that has carried the name of God in Persian longer than most can recall. The cultural memory of these cities is intertwined with the voices of those whose words and songs have shaped the spiritual imagination of generations. People of faith are called to maintain a crucial distinction between those who wield power and govern in the name of God, while suppressing their own people, and those who have borne the weight of such governance- the women who have marched unveiled into the guns, bravely confronting violence and injustice; the young who have lost their lives on the streets, sacrificed in the pursuit of freedom and dignity; and the families forced into exile by a theocracy that has long waged war against its own citizens.