Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

l. I want to take the opportunity offered by this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to recall that we are now in the second half of the Decade of Evangelisation and that we are preparing ourselves far the celebration of the great Millennium Jubilee.

In her history, the Church has witnessed great schisms and in this country we are all acutely aware of the difficulties and problems caused by our Christian disunity.

The Millennium gives us all the chance to look again at our relationships with one another, particularly our relationships with our fellow Christians, and to start again. We have a unique opportunity for renewed trust so that we can pray, work and celebrate together.

2. In the last fifty years, great steps have been taken to heal the divisions between the Christian Churches and nowhere more so than in this country. The work has been hard and sometimes unrewarding, but in our diocese much has been achieved and our relations with other Churches have never been better.

Some years ago, I signed a personal covenant with the other Church leaders in Hampshire and the Islands and I feel equally united with my fellow Christian leaders in the other counties of the diocese.

The Diocesan Commission for Christian Unity has spearheaded our ecumenical work and it has been blessed in what it has been able to achieve. A particular joy and benefit has been the regular presence at its meetings of observers from the other Churches.

Much work has also been going on at local level in the parishes and I am grateful for that and delighted about it.

3. But ecumenism is not an end in itself. Its aim is to work for the unity of the Churches so that the Christian Gospel may be more effectively proclaimed. The Gospel of Christ is the Good News, sought by so many but, tragically, so often obscured by our disunity.

In working and praying for unity, we are not trying to make everyone the same, nor are we as Catholics being asked to diminish our faith in any way. We are praying that we may. be more faithful to what is manifestly the will of Christ for his followers - "that they should be one."

4. This means that ecumenism has to be at the heart of what we are as Catholic Christians. The Holy Father has stressed this in a letter he wrote in 1995. He writes: "...it is absolutely clear that ecumenism is not just some sort of 'appendix ' which is added to the Church's traditional activity. It is an organic part of her life and work and, consequently, must pervade all that she is and does..."(Ut Unum Sint *20) This is no easy challenge, but it is one we all have to face.

5. I want, therefore, to commend to you two general principles.

a) that you do your best to ensure that there is an ecumenical dimension to everything you do.

b) that before you enter into any new activity or initiative, especially in your preparations for the Millennium Jubilee, you consider very seriously whether it could be better achieved by all the Churches in your area working together.

6. I also have one specific request to make of you.

A number of you have already become involved in what is known as the "Called to be One" process. This is part of a national initiative aimed at getting all Christian Churches to understand one another better.

During Lent in a number of towns and villages throughout the diocese, local Churches Together will be using the "Called to be One" workbook as the basis for their discussion groups. I hope as many of you as possible will be able to take part in these groups. We have much to contribute as well as having much to learn.

7. In our preparations for the Great Jubilee celebrations, we are facing up to the challenge of being renewed as a diocese by the work of the Holy Spirit. A new ecumenical spirit is part of that renewal.

"God's call to the churches for unity is at the same time a call to renewal and a call to engage together in the evangelisation of the world. The second Millennium has seen the division of the Christian community. As they approach the end of that Millennium, the Churches are challenged to put themselves more faithfully in the hands of God, that the third Millennium may become the Millennium of reconciliation and unity." (Called to be One *7.30)

To be read or made available for the weekend of Jan 18/19 1997