The Archbishop of Canterbury has told of the "heroism" of key workers and NHS staff in a stirring Easter message delivered from his kitchen.

With coronavirus lockdown rules closing churches, Justin Welby - who would typically address a congregation of 1,500 at Canterbury Cathedral - was forced to record the sermon on an iPad at his London flat.

In it he describes the pandemic as a "time of darkness" and tells of his shock at learning Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been taken into intensive care.

But he asks people to keep hope during unprecedented times and urges them not to "be content to go back to what was before as if all was normal".

"Who does not feel the shock of the last few weeks?" he asked.

"So many have suffered from the virus, been in hospital, or mourn someone who is gone.

"We were all probably shocked as the Prime Minister went into intensive care and we wish him and all who those who are ill well and we pray for them and their families.

"So many people right across the country are anxious about employment, anxious about food, isolated from loved ones and feel that the future looks dark.

"People right across the globe feel the same uncertainty, fear, despair and isolation. We are not alone."

The Archbishop referenced the Easter message, talking of the hope inspired by Jesus Christ rising from the dead, and how such hope can be helpful today.

"Which brings us back to ambitious imagination and what we might call unreasonable hope in this time of darkness," he said.

"Because in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have a hope that is surer than stone; than any architecture.

"Even in the dark days of this Easter we can feed, feast on hope. We can dream of what our country and our world will look like after the pandemic.

"There will still be wickedness and war, poverty and persecution, greed and grasping. There always has been; always will be.

"Yet in the resurrection of Jesus Christ God lights a fire which calls us to justice, to live in humble generosity, to transform our societies.

"After so much suffering, so much heroism from key workers and the NHS in this country and their equivalents all across the globe, once this epidemic is conquered here and elsewhere, we cannot be content to go back to what was before as if all was normal. There needs to be a resurrection of our common life, a new normal, something that links to the old, but is different and more beautiful."

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