Diocesan News16 Mar 11

St Patrick's Day Statement from The Rt Revd Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore

“Continue laying a firm foundation for a shared future in this province,” says Bishop Harold Miller

The theme of the St Patrick’s Day Pilgrimage from Saul to Downpatrick this year is Shared Past-Shared Future. It is one of the great joys and privileges of my ministry to welcome people from all churches and backgrounds to the pilgrimage each year. Here, Nationalists and Unionists gladly meet, and people from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds worship the One Lord together.

It has been encouraging to see the development in good relations which has taken place in Northern Ireland over the last decade. Not least has been the respect and pragmatism which has overall marked working relationships between different political viewpoints in the Assembly and Executive in Stormont.

This is a time to continue resolutely building on those relationships. It is vitally important that all of us do everything in our power to continue laying a firm foundation for a shared future in this province. St Patrick is increasingly gladly owned by all of us as our patron saint – the one used by God to bring the Christian faith to this island. Our beginnings of faith lie in Patrick’s mission. Our common history, personified in the Irishness and Britishness of Patrick, holds and ties us all together.

The task God is giving to us here in Northern Ireland, at this stage in our life together, is to lay solid foundations for a truly shared future. We must never become complacent about our divisions, or satisfied to live in parallel universes; nor must we step back from the enormous challenge that lies before us. The truth is that, in sharing our lives, our perspectives and our cultures together we will find not only a creative way of living, but also a Christ-like way of love and respect for each other.