The Archbishop of Canterbury (above) yesterday called on Christians to use non-violent means of resistance when faced with persecution by extremists - days after an attack in Kenya killed 150 people . The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday called on Christians to use non-violent means of resistance when faced with persecution by extremists. In the wake of the slaughter of Christian students in Kenya and the barbarity of Islamic State militants, the Most Reverend Justin Welby said the dead were ‘martyrs’. Delivering his Easter sermon in Canterbury Cathedral, he said: ‘Christians must resist without violence the persecution they suffer and support persecuted communities, with love and goodness and generosity.’ Dr Welby told his congregation that the killing of Christians over the past year had been a ‘wicked’ development. ‘To witness is to be a martyr,’ he said. ‘I am told by the Coptic Bishop in England that the Coptic Christians murdered in Libya last month died proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord. They are martyrs, a word that means both one that dies for their faith and one that witnesses to faith. ‘There have been so many martyrs in the last year. On Maundy Thursday, three days ago, around 150 Kenyans were killed because of being Christian. They are witnesses, unwilling, unjustly, wickedly, and they are martyrs in both senses of the word.’ The archbishop said their Christian faith meant the martyrs would defeat evil despite ‘their cruel deaths, the brutality of their persecution’. Dr Welby’s praise of martyrdom was made as Pope Francis called for governments to intervene in Syria and Iraq. In his Easter address in the Vatican City’s St Peter’s Square, the Pope said: ‘May the international community not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries and the drama of the numerous refugees.’ Pope Francis also spoke of the suffering of the victims persecuted for being Christian. He said that Christians ‘do not need to employ violence; they speak and act with the power of truth, beauty and love’. A priest similarly conducts an Easter Sunday service at the Catholic Church in Garissa, Kenya, where the attack happened . Officers from the Kenya Defence Forces and the Kenya Red Cross place an injured woman on a Nairobi-bound plane for specialised treatment . Some of the Garissa University students who were rescued comfort each other at the nearby military camp . He added: ‘We ask Jesus to lighten the sufferings of our many brothers and sisters who are persecuted for his name, and of all those who suffer injustice as a result of ongoing conflicts and violence. ‘We ask for peace, above all, for Syria and Iraq, that the roar of arms may cease and that peaceful relations may be restored among the various groups which make up those beloved countries.’ Pope Francis told the thousands gathered in the square for the Easter mass that he prayed ‘that the present absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence may cease’. The Pope said he also prayed for peace in Libya and the Middle East. A general view of the Garissa Catholic Church, which has remained closed after an attack by gunmen on Thursday at a university campus . Kenya’s special forces took seven hours to arrive at the scene of the massacre at Garissa University, it emerged yesterday. The assault by Somali-based Al Shabaab militants, which killed nearly 150 Christians, was Kenya’s deadliest terror attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy. Yet troops from the country’s elite Recce Company did not arrive at the campus until 2pm – seven hours after Thursday’s dawn attack was launched. Reporters based in Nairobi, who drove 225 miles to Garissa after hearing the first reports of the attack, arrived before the special forces flew in. It also emerged yesterday that one of the Islamist gunmen responsible for the massacre was the missing son of a senior government official. He was identified as law graduate Abdirahim Mohammed Abdullahi, son of a Kenyan regional government official in Mandera County.
Archbishop of Canterbury also said the dead were 'martyrs' in speech.
Pope Francis called for governments to intervene in Syria and Iraq.