May I first of all welcome all of you here this evening for this the first Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Service of the new Millennium. It is a great privilege for us here in the Green Church to host this service tonight. This ancient Church which has stood here for almost eight centuries, most of the last millennium in fact, has seen much in the ups and downs of inter-church relationships throughout its long history. This Church was being built when knights in shining armour were heading off on their great crusades to the Holy Land. It saw all the turmoil of the reformation and indeed the counter-reformation. It saw King Billy and King James as they marched with their armies to the battle of the Boyne. It was a witness to the decline of the Church in the 18^th Century and its revival in the 19^th. It was aware of the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1870. It was the Church of the army in Dundalk until the founding of the state. In the graveyard outside many soldiers along with their wives and children are buried. One of its strongest periods was in this century when the railway was at its peak in the town. A millennium of history and witness, of great faith and of times of upheaval. A millennium of profound change that has seen the world transformed from asses and carts to the microchip and the Celtic tiger. This ancient church has in short seen it all. In the last decade of the 20^th Century it saw yet more profound change to its own structure as first it received a £200,000 facelift and then tragically had part of its heritage destroyed by vandals. Both these events have I hope set the pattern for a new future for this ancient church and its role in terms of the whole community here in Dundalk. We were and are so grateful to the people of this town for their help both with the restoration and with the replacement of the damaged east window. I put on record once again my thanks to all of you and countless others who helped us in our hour of need. As I have said this last decade of the last millennium has I hope set the pattern for the future. We meet here this evening on the threshold of the third millennium. This is a jubilee year, the 2000^th anniversary of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, a year of hope and promise and expectation. This sense of optimism has been heightened by the events of the last few days of 1999 a few short miles away in Northern Ireland. Here in this church for the past few years we have kept alight a candle for peace in our country. That same candle now sits on our altar this evening along with the bible and the cross, the symbol of our faith. It seems to me therefore to be perfectly right that we should meet here, in this church, for this service this evening. It is right for all sorts of reasons. Allow me to draw your attention to a few of them.

1. As we look back over the last 1,000 years we have much for which we ought to be ashamed. There has been much misery, callousness, violence and even death caused in the name of Christianity. No denomination is free from guilt. All have at times come far short of what should rightly be expected of those who proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe that in this Jubilee year we have an opportunity to put all of this behind us and to move on in a new spirit of hope and co-operation. But first we need, with the greatest humility, to bow down before God and to ask his forgiveness for all that has gone before. The idea of this year of Jubilee is not a new one. It comes from the Book of Leviticus in which we are told every 50^th year is to be a year of Jubilee. It is to be a time when debts are to be forgiven, a holy time, a time to use a theological word, of redemption. If the last Millennium could be looked at as a school report then the comment to the churches, all the churches, would surely be, 'Could have done much better.' Do we who in this generation, carry the Gospel of Love in our hearts, have the foresight and the courage to grasp the opportunity that this year brings. I believe that for our own sakes and the sake of our children we have no option. I pray for God's forgiveness and I step forward in hope.
2. I have mentioned our candle for peace. We have witnessed in the past couple of months what we all hope will mark the beginning of a political settlement in Northern Ireland. It has been a long and tortuous process and I'm sure there are even now one or two twists to come. It is now however that the real search for peace comes into its own. The politicians have if you like provided the framework, it is up to the rest of us now to build upon that in terms of renewed relationships and co-operation at local level. Peace will continue to elude us if it is left to the politicians alone. It is my belief that the churches have a crucial role to play in this. Again I am talking about all denominations. I am talking about individuals within those churches having the courage to go beyond what may have been acceptable in the past and finding new ways to communicate and to go forward in a spirit of co-operation and genuine Christian understanding. I believe that we in Dundalk have a crucial role to play in all of this. Towns and villages across the North of Ireland will hopefully be seeking out ways to reach out the hand of friendship to their neighbour. Barriers that have been erected in minds for generations will have to come down if we are to succeed. This town that has come in a few short years from El Paso to Silicon Valley is best placed to lead the way. But we too will have to move on from where we are at the moment. In this new dispensation the solutions of the past will not do. This week of prayer for unity has provided a focus for us over the past few years. And very useful it has been. But we need to move on. I believe the time is now right for the sort of local initiative that will give renewed impetus to our quest for genuine Christian unity. I believe that local Church leaders should now be looking to set up Ecumenical Projects that take us beyond where we are and points the way forward for others. I would be willing to lead a delegation from this town to talk to those in authority in our respective Churches, and to seek their blessing for such a project. But even without that there is much more we can do at local level. I propose here this evening that all the Church leaders should be able to give their assent to a joint declaration at the beginning of this new millennium. It might go something like this: