19th January 2003

I regard it as privilege to have been invited by Bishop Hegarty to preach at this important service which marks the start of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity.

On this my first visit to St Eugene's Cathedral, I have greatly appreciated the warmth of the welcome I have received from the Bishop, from the Cathedral staff, and from the congregation.

Since my arrival in this city and diocese, I have been most grateful to Bishop Hegarty and to the leaders of other Christian traditions for the generosity of their reception, for their support and their encouragement.

It is my intention, as it is theirs, to develop positive and constructive relationships between our respective churches, and to co-operate in ways that foster reconciliation and build community trust.

This is a week in which we remind one another the substantial core of what it is that unites us in Christ, and a week in which we long to speak together to a sceptical world about the reality of the gospel, aware that our very disunity can be a serious obstacle to many on their pathway to faith.

The impact of this week must also strengthen our resolve to do what we can in the other fifty-one weeks of the year to grow towards the kind of unity for which Christ prayed. It must help us develop a more heightened sensitivity to the damage to the gospel and to evangelisation caused by the so-called conflict between Christians that the world assumes to lie behind the portrayal of inter-communal strife in this beautiful and special land.

We live in a world that is anxious about the prospect of a major military confrontation that may result in immense human suffering and in destabilizing consequences too awful to contemplate.

We live in a European Community where old hostilities and impenetrable borders are giving way to new opportunities for travel and employment. But these exciting opportunities also bring with them fresh challenges in migration of population, asylum seeking and new ethnic mixes.

We live in a land where different political aspirations, different cultural expressions and different religious traditions have not yet learned to co-exist with mutual respect, or confidence in the goodwill of the other.

The people of this fearful world, of this brave new European Community, and of this divided land need to hear a more united and harmonious Christian voice if they are to pay serious attention to what we have to say and if they are to be convinced of the transforming power of Jesus Christ to bring hope.