First may I thank Fr. Bobby McKenna for his words of welcome and say on behalf of my congregation that it is good for us to be here. I am reminded of the true story of the protestant lady who told a friend of mine, when she knew he was going to be ordained. "I hope you’ll preach the gospel and not any of that love your neighbour nonsense." Friends this evening I would hope both to preach the gospel and to love my neighbour. Although as the story was told it was as if the first one was all-important, and the other was of no value.

The theme of our service is "The household of God: called to be one in heart and mind"

If you were asked to sum up the gospel message in one sentence, you might say that it is the call to enter into a new personal relationship with God and with other people, through faith in Jesus Christ.

The effect of that new relationship is to set you free from the law of sin and death; so that you may live the new life in the power of our Lord’s own risen life. There remains the question as to how this should be expressed in practical every-day living, and in the world of work, home, family, words and actions.

"Fear of Rome" runs deep in the protestant psyche. The bible says "The truth shall set you free" and "Perfect love casts out fear" Yet this is one spirit that remains very difficult to cast out!

For all of us it is easy to reinforce the patterns of prejudice within our own community, to go along with inherited attitudes and values rather than to challenge narrow views and opinions with wider concepts and vision. In any case it is only the other lot who are capable of being prejudiced - never my lot. I suppose that is the way that prejudices work.

There is something wrong with a society where two religious groups are engaged in a political and social conflict based on 16th century loyalties, which both sides seek to perpetuate in order to gain some tribal advantage over the other. As one American slogan puts it aptly - HATRED IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE.

We need to take to heart the words of Isaiah. "For now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men’s minds." Isa. 65:17. Isaiah’s vision is of the transformation of the world through God’s activity. It offers joy, gladness, prosperity and peace so that God’s own people - his household - may "Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever".

Our Church Unity week theme focuses on "The household of God: called to be one in heart and mind". The gospel message is meant to unite Christians, not divide them. While differences of doctrine and outlook should not hinder closer co-operation between the churches, neither should they be minimised, glossed over or ignored. That is no service to anyone. Rather they should be recognised, faced up to, explored and if necessary moved beyond.

When we do engage in honest dialogue and discussion we start to discover the riches of each other’s tradition and we usually find more common ground than we had previously thought. Listening with the other persons' ears and looking with their eyes is always a learning experience. It is better than shouting at each other over a fence, or steadfastly maintaining our own form of spiritual isolation, as some choose to do.

Crossing established boundaries confronts you with the ghosts of your own past. So I have a confession to make this evening! Then you will know where I am coming from. I want you to think where you are coming from and to reflect on your own spiritual journey. When I was 15 and an earnest Protestant, I sent for the Catholic Instruction Course from Clonard Monastery, not because I had any wish to change denomination, but so that I could be better informed and able to refute the errors of Rome - that was of course in the days before Vatican 2! I have since come to appreciate catholic spirituality and devotion and the sense of belonging to the community of faith.

When I was curate in a large evangelical parish, where like many others we managed to celebrate church unity week safely without any ecumenical contact with our catholic neighbours, I produced three catholic publications and declared that these were the best available, and that the Church of Ireland needed someone to do the same job for us. - They were all from Westminster diocese, documents on pastoral strategy, adult education policy and liturgy resources. One member of the congregation was not impressed. For my pains I was taken aside and duly told that "Last time it was a picture of the pope. This time it’s advertising Romish books. I think you are in the wrong church."

I didn’t volunteer the fact that some of the new choir anthems came from a modern hymn book, THE NEW CATHOLIC HYMNAL. That would only have added insult to injury. However I can tell you that this hymnbook has been greatly appreciated in each of the parishes in which I have worked. It would seem that it’s all right, provided they don’t know where it comes from!

A few suggestions that may help us to think through the implications of our theme "The household of God: called to be one in heart and mind".

1. We need to apologise to each other for the hurts of the past, that we have inflicted on each other. These wounds are very deep and they need to be healed. I can only speak for myself when I say that Protestants need to repent of their spiritual superiority and self-righteousness. They need to acknowledge the hurt of Roman Catholics for what happened to them and their church during periods of Irish history and up to the present. They also need to share political responsibility with Catholics in a genuine spirit of generosity, which is an attitude of heart and mind.

I must leave it to my catholic neighbours to declare what they think Roman Catholics need to repent of. From a protestant perspective Catholics need to work for a wider separation between church and state, to remove the adverse social consequences of the mixed marriage regulations and to reject completely paramilitary violence. To say that violence is wrong and that now is the time for it to stop is simply a statement of Christian conviction.

2.We must all let go of the great antagonisms of the past, represented by entrenched views, fixed positions and stereotyped images of each other. Stand up to bigotry and prejudice, they have no place in the household of God.

3.We can work for a better understanding at local level. Look for simple ways to further co-operation, to remove barriers, to share fellowship, to appreciate each other, to accommodate difference and diversity.

Sometimes we are not very good at that. However, we have made some small progress. The local catholic hall offered for the protestant parish dance. (The next one is next Friday at 9.30pm and you are all welcome.) Protestant pensioners invited to the catholic parish dinner. For our own part we have shared our church at Ballymascanlon with the Methodists for an evening service once a month to which 40 people turned up on the first Sunday night. The same invitation to use our church at Ballymascanlan is available to our catholic neighbours, should it prove convenient.

In November we planted a peace forest at Crossmaglen, where pupils from the catholic school hope to make a visit very soon to their local protestant church. And last month I received a Christmas card from a tong-term republican prisoner from Crossmaglen. Not quite what some might expect. Yet all these are small signs of hope as we seek to challenge our own faith and to apply gospel values in our daily lives and in "the household of God: called to be one in heart and mind".

Let us pray: Fill us good Lord with your spirit of love; and as we worship You here this evening, so make us one in heart and mind, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.