She will tell the congregation on Sunday: “This week our gaze and our prayers have been turned towards the land where Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead.
“Today, as we shout with joy that Christ is risen, let us pray and call with renewed urgency for an end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East and the Gulf.
“May our Christian sisters and brothers know and celebrate the hope of the empty tomb – and may all people of the region receive the peace, justice and freedom they long for.”
Thousands of people are reported to have been killed in the ongoing conflict that began on 28 February with widespread US and Israeli strikes on Iran, to which Iran responded by launching attacks on Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf.
Israel has also since launched broad strikes across Lebanon after the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the war.
