John Neill, Church of Ireland archbishop of Dublin

Sometimes the difference between hope and despair is no more than whether you see the cup as half-full or half-empty, and the difference is in the eye of the beholder rather than anything definable. This leaves the question as to what hope is actually built on.

There was a time when hope seemed to be based on "money in the bank" but that is now pretty shaky! For many hope is based on a career, but that apparent security has been shattered for so many too.

As a Christian, I cannot expect to be sheltered from any of the trials of human existence, nor can I expect always to feel bright and cheerful. I cannot expect to be spared the anguish of mental suffering either.

Hope is not built on a method of escape from reality, nor on a denial of the pains that may confront us. In Christian faith, hope is built on the power of God to bring good out of evil, to bring life out of death. God's involvement in this world at its most real, and indeed at its most painful, is seen in the life and death of Jesus Christ. In the resurrection of Jesus, despair is turned to hope as God's power is displayed.

I have always been taken by the story of the visitor to the Soviet Union in the darkest days of the atheistic state. The visitor was having his hair cut, and something he said, or something he was wearing, perhaps a cross, gave him away as a Christian. The man cutting his hair suddenly whispered to him, "Christ is Risen", the ancient Christian greeting used especially by Orthodox Christians. The visitor came away so encouraged that here, in times of real persecution and suffering, there were people holding on to the faith of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. This tenacity eventually won through.

In these difficult times, I cannot afford to despair, and nor can I escape despair simply by hoping for the recovery as soon as possible. I must cling to that very real Christian hope that, at the end of the day nothing in all creation, and certainly not recession, can separate us from the love and power of God shown in Jesus Christ raised from the dead.