A BISHOP will use his Easter message today to urge confession and forgiveness.

The Right Reverend John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, will address clergy and lay workers at a Cathedral Maundy Thursday Holy Communion Service, in Ripon Cathedral.

He will say that the Christian message of confession and forgiveness is vitally important in a culture which finds it difficult to forgive people such as Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Bishop Packer is expected to say: "Our culture finds forgiveness very hard, for Beverley Hughes, or Maxine Carr, or railway engineers who make errors.

"Jesus' stress in stories like the Prodigal Son is of the depth of God's forgiveness. We need both to seek it and to share it so that we experience the joy of Easter.

"Confession and forgiveness are an important part of Christian worship, and are at the heart of Holy Week and Easter. All human beings need a sense of their own failure and folly.

"This may be over a broken relationship or a refusal to help those in need. People need to know their guilt but not be overcome by it or they will fail to find forgiveness - for example for the responsibility for a car accident. We need to seek forgiveness for ourselves and share it with others."

The Maundy Thursday Eucharist for Blessing of Oils and Renewal of Vows in Ripon Cathedral starts at 11am and is open to the public.