Archbishop's Diwali message for 2009

The full text of the message can be found below:

To all Hindu friends and colleagues,

Each year sees many changes and new developments for us as individuals and in the lives of our communities, but the cycle of the year with its festival highpoints brings a sense of stability and continuity to our lives. As you approach the festival of Diwali, and beyond it and as Christians look ahead to the festivals of Advent and Christmas, we can together be glad to be reminded of the ways in which we celebrate the permanent in the midst of the transient.

These festival high points remind us of the permanent tasks that we must continually recommit ourselves to: reconciliation and justice for all, especially for the world’s poorest; urgent attention to the challenges of climate and environmental damage; the building of positive and creative relations between people and communities of different Faiths.

I look forward to opportunities in the year ahead to renew and deepen the relationships between our communities in this country and worldwide in the expectation that this will be fruitful for us all and beneficial to the wider world.

I am glad to be able to offer to the Hindu community at this time my warm good wishes and hopes that this again will be a time of celebration which will sustain you in the year ahead.