Proverbs 14v.34 "Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people".

There is a tendency to divide nations into two opposing categories. We do it in various ways - rich and poor, nuclear and non-nuclear, black and white and so on. Where once there was right and wrong: now we have left and right. The man made laws of Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Keynes have taken over where once the Sermon on the Mount was our shared heritage. The Bible also divides but uses a different classification - not economic, political, military, geographical or racial, but moral - "righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people".

On reading the Old Testament we see that God chose Israel to be a "holy nation" - a nation for his own possession. However he is God of all nations too. As such he is concerned with the moral values of every nation. If you doubt this read the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel - one by one Israel's neighbours are named- Moab, Edom, Amon, Philistia, Arabia, Egypt, Tyre and Sidon, Assyria and Babylon. One by one each is indicted. Possibly the most remarkable denunciation of national sin ever recorded is written in the first two chapters of Amos. Here the barbarous methods of violence and war are condemned. God's judgement is to fall on Damascus for threshing the inhabitants of Gilead with threshing sledges studded with iron teeth (today we might talk of baseball bats studded with nails). He condemns Gaza and Tyre for engaging in slave traffic. Amos accuses Judah of rejecting God's law for their own selfish ends and Israel for engaging in bribery and corruption, immorality and religious hypocrisy. In each case the judgement is handed down "for three transgressions... and for four I will not revoke the punishment".

What would Amos say if he were to visit the island of Ireland today? He would see a Peace Process which has hopefully provided the possibility of a new start in the three sets of relationships - between the two traditions in Northern Ireland, the North/South dimension between the people of Ireland as a whole and the East/West dimension, the relations between the people of Ireland and Great Britain. Its advocates believe they have opened up the possibility of negotiating a lasting settlement based on parity of esteem and inclusiveness. There is the hope that conflict and a security - dominated way of life will give way to co-operative structures and new relationships on a basis of parity of esteem and trust.

But the N.I. Assembly and shared Government have also brought anxiety and uncertainly both about its permanence, the risks and requirements of compromise and must importantly reconciliation. The Peace Walls are still standing in Belfast and the three P's - prisoners, parades, and police are still divisive issues! Healing the pain and grief of 30 years, overcoming the legacies of the past, building trust and reconciliation, establishing a lasting political settlement - a fair and inclusive society represents a formidable challenge.

A start has been made as the N.I. Assembly and Executive grapple with such common concerns as hospitals and medical care, education, housing, farming, employment and the dozen and one problems, which lie at the heart of "normal politics". In facing these, we may learn of our commonalty. But deep down in our hearts, we know that we carry enormous baggage from the past. The healing of history is a complex matter. Moya Angelon gave us a sense of the importance of trying.

"History, despite it wrenching pain

Cannot be unlived, but if faced

With courage need not be lived again".

Historical, national moral, social and religious fears abound. We are all too frequently suspicious of one another. If we could but admit it we are all victims of a potent conditioning which gives us ready-made judgements on others. All, too, often we are caught in the mindset of "us" and "them".

Our difficulties are complex- political, cultural, social and religious. Time allows me to stress but one strand among many, in the healing process. We tend to remember only what happened on Bloody Sunday and forget Bloody Friday, to remember Tullyvallen but to forget McGurk's Bar, to remember Enniskillen but forget Greysteel.....And one could go on and on. Then there are instances of shared grief as in Claudy and Omagh. There are also the thousands of individuals picked off, blown up or injured. And the tragedies and problems continue with missing persons, the intimidated, pipe and paint bombs, protectionism, gangsterism turf wars, greed, drug trafficking, smuggling and of course Drumcree and Garvaghy Road have not gone away. We can have selective memories.

To remember one's own loses alone will not do. Nor will it be possible "to forgive and forget". This represents bad theology, banal Christianity and questionable psychology. The only way to deal with deep hurt and resentment whether from the distant past or more recent times is not to forgive and forget but to remember and repent. Christians of all people ought best to understand that truth and realise the value not to mention the divine imperative of remembrance.

George Santayana no friend of Christianity rightly observed "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". It is never easy to say, " I am sorry" - the hardest words to articulate in any language. Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his recent book _"No future without Forgiveness", remarked on how difficult it was even for spouses to say sorry to each other in the intimacy of their bedroom. How much more difficult for a politician, a soldier, a policeman, a paramilitary, a terrorist. I can think of only a few instances of this happening in our own country in the full glare of T.V. and mass publicity.

Consider what the New Testament has to say concerning God's forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others - "Forgive us the wrong we have done as we have forgiven those who have wronged us ". This is the only petition in the Lord's Prayer which is immediately followed by those terrifying words "if you do not forgive others; the wrongs you have done will not be forgiven by your Father" and this principle runs right through the New Testament.

Four years ago Michael McGoldrick courageously stood by the grave of his son murdered by so-called Loyalists in Portadown and said "I forgive you" but the offer was not taken up. The same went for the remarkable reaction of the late Gordon Wilson to the brutal killing of his daughter but there was no repentant to receive the forgiveness offered and so lead to reconciliation. Perhaps there is now an opportunity for the Omagh bombers to confess.

Behind Reconciliation there lies a sequence of sorrow, confession, repentance, forgiveness, reparation..... One doesn't go directly from A to F. One moves from A to B, B to C and so on. Sometimes steps are taken forward, other times there may be backsliding. Reconciliation is always creative bringing into being a totally new situation.

So far the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission similar to the South African concept has received little support in Ireland, but I am one who believes that it is more than likely that some sort of Truth Commission may be an essential element if there is to be any healing from the spiritual and psychological wounds and divisions inflicted and suffered over the past 30 years. An El Salvador commentator put it this way "unless a society exposes itself to the truth, it can harbour no possibility of reconciliation, reunification and trust. For a peace settlement to be solid and durable it must be based on truth". If only we in the Churches would take seriously the damage and dangers suffered and endured over the years.

Let us turn from the nation to the Church. "If righteousness exalts a nation," how can a nation obtain the righteousness, which will exalt it and avoid the sin which is its disgrace? The Church has duties to the nation.

1. The duty to pray. Do we pray for those in high places? Do we remember our neighbours irrespective of denomination? When did you last pray publicly in your Church for your separated Christian brethren mentioning them by name?

2. The duty to speak out. It is the duty of the Churches (and their members) to be the nations conscience. Possibly the heaviest responsibility lies on the shoulders of those called to be Church leaders but that does not let you and me off the hook! Many Church of Ireland members are shamed and pained by the adverse images of Drumcree Parish Church beamed across the world over the past five years. Many have spoken out alas with little or no effect but that must not deter us from making our views known. In border areas it might be asked- why have large numbers of Church of Ireland families left, not only isolated rural districts but also larger towns? Do those of the Majority ever face the minority's problems?

3. There is the duty to set an example. The Christian's calling is to be different. While in the past the Churches have contributed to folk religion with a heavy overlay of tribalism, yet there are signs of life. The situation can vary from Diocese to Diocese, from parish to parish much depending on leadership. It can also vary due to paucity of Church of Ireland numbers in some places and to ghettoisation in parts of the North.

There have been apologies from Cardinal Daly for evil deeds done by the Irish to the people of Britain, following a similar statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury. In many places in the Republic there has been remarkable Roman Catholic generosity to their smaller and weaker Church of Ireland neighbouring Parishes. Hospital and Third Level Chaplaincies are notable examples of good practices with team chaplaincies and shared chapels becoming the norm in the Republic. In the Diocese of Clogher the two Bishops produce a joint Christmas message. In the Diocese of Ferns a joint Ecumenical Council flourishes. In the Church of Ireland Diocese of Down and Dromore a Reconciliation Programme 2000-5 has been launched reaching out to Roman Catholics and Protestants, Republican and Loyalist, Nationalist and Unionist, with five full time officers to service this project. In my former Diocese of Connor, the two Cathedrals of St. Anne and St. Peter have a joint programme of collaboration including a procession of witness on Good Friday from the Roman Catholic Cathedral arriving in time for the Three Hours Service in St. Anne's. These are but a few instances of good practices among scores of notable happenings.

Bishop Donal Lamont once spoke of our frozen Inter-Church relationships. That is not so today. Nowadays there is much happening. However if anything is to be real, it must be local and I congratulate you in Creggan and am delighted to participate in this act of worship bringing together Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland neighbours.

Hope for Ireland does not lie in a particular settlement nor does it lie with London, Washington, Dublin or Belfast. It lies with ordinary folk who have healed relationships, hewn from pain and humiliation, from sin and fear, from guilt and shame, from repentance and forgiveness.