As an Anglican lay woman I welcome the opportunity to be part of this particular round table with such distinguished fellow contributors. There is something very special about coming to the subject After Easter Together: Ecumenism, in the context of a meeting that brings together not only the different Christian traditions but also leaders of the major world religions and heads of States from different cultural and political contexts. More often we focus our attention upon Christian unity, moving out from there to the unity and peace of the human community seeing that wider human unity entirely through a Christian lens. In this meeting we have the opportunity to get hold of the interconnectedness of Christian unity and human unity in a more authentic way. It should help us to get hold at a deeper level of the truth Pope John Paul II pointed to at the end of the meeting last year in Portugal when he said:

In the diversity of religious expressions, honestly recognised as such, the fact of standing side by side manifests in a visible way how deeply the human family yearns for unity.

At the same time this broader context of yearning for unity surely reminds Christians of the prayer of Jesus in the garden, the prayer in the heart of the risen Christ, that his disciples then, and his disciples now should be one as Jesus and his Father are one, with that amazing conformity of minds, wills, and desires. And even more astonishing that we should be one in them, one through being enfolded together in the life and love that flows in the being of the Godhead. That relationship is both model and source of our unity. And there is one other thing that comes to us clearly in that prayer in the garden. We are to be together as Christians in a way that is visible, audible and credible in this world. What else could the prayer possibly mean � �may they be one, so that the world may believe.�

This round table gives us opportunity to reflect together on where we are in the pilgrimage to Christian unity at the start of the new century. Let me offer you first some thoughts on where we are, and then a few thoughts on challenges ahead.

Where are we in the ecumenical pilgrimage?

What is clear is that the main- stream churches have come out of their isolations and have got to know one another. More than 350 churches meet together in the fellowship of the World Council of Churches and, with the aggiornamento of Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church is now a major player, even if, sadly, not a member of the WCC. The climate has changed. Who would have thought it possible that at the beginning of the 21rst century a Bishop of Rome would invite the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leaders of the Protestant churches to kneel beside him and pray for Christian unity, or ask them to help he understand his ministry in the service of unity? Christians do act together now in causes for justice, peace and the care of creation. Through the WCC we have worked together to overcome racism and sexism, made calls together for the cancellation of third world debt, and are engaging in a programme to overcome violence. And these international efforts together are mirrored in regional and local efforts.

Christians have reached convergence, even consensus, on issues that were once the cause of division. Who would have thought it possible for Roman Catholics and Lutherans to reach agreement on the issue that lay at the heart of the Reformation divide? Or for Anglicans and Roman Catholics to agree on the presence of Christ in the eucharist ? Or for the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches to reach agreement on Christology? Or for so many traditions to achieve such far reaching convergence in that amazing text Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry?

Some of these theological breakthroughs, supported prayer and joint action, have led to changed relationships: the United Churches of the Indian Sub- Continent, the Leuenberg Agreement between Lutherans, Reformed and Methodists, the new agreements in northern Europe and North America bringing Anglicans and Lutherans into relations of communion in life and mission, and, more recently, the call of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops from around the world for the banking of the ARCIC agreements in a new stage of committed relation lived our practically in every part of the world. The ecclesial map is changing. We are living beyond the limits of the landscape that our grandparents knew or dared to think of. And at best we are aware that the unity of the Church requires not simply paper agreements, but absolutely requires a deep down renewal of the human community of the Church, the breaking down of the human divisions that insidiously corrupt the life of the churches � divisions of men and women, of race, of class, of haves and have nots, of those of different abilities... We ought to claim and rejoice in all of these achievements, these gifts of the Spirit of reconciliation.

And yet, for all this achievement, as we stand at the beginning of a new century, the ecumenical scene is fragile and confused � �lost in the fog� as one leading ecumenist puts it. The very success of the movement has made some fear a loss of their own identity, with a resurgence of narrow denominationalisms. When an agreement is proposed some fear moving �beyond Anglicanism�, �beyond Lutheranism�, �beyond Roman Catholicism�. Sadly, new tensions between east and West seem to dampen the hopes of Christianity �breathing with two lungs�. Some Orthodox churches talk of withdrawal from the WCC � feeling compromised again and again by a fellowship that appears to endorse developments with which they cannot agree. It would be tragic if Orthodox churches were to lessen commitment to the ecumenical movement. We have all been immeasurably enriched by their Trinitarian vision and insistence on the need for agreement in faith. Further, the fragility of the scene can be seen in the lack of sensitivity churches exhibit towards one another by unilateral actions on matters that touch the faith or order of the Church, or by statements that appear to �unchurch� others. None of us seems aware that there can today be no such thing as a purely internal document, or unilateral action for we are bound together now by a real, even if restricted, communion.

The ecumenical scene too is complicated by seismic changes taking place in world Christianity with the fastest growing communities now in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This broader ecumenical community brings creative insights, often shifting the discussion from tradition speaking to tradition, to culture speaking to culture. And as the Gospel takes root in the different languages, images and thought forms, we seem unprepared for the new questions that arise or how to respond to what is legitimate diversity. Non- doctrinal factors too create new walls of separation, not least in the area of human sexuality, and new coalitions are formed both within and across the churches. And behind all of these new and divisive issues, whether of faith, or order, or moral life a major fault line appears in the different approaches to the interpretation of Holy Scripture. Where we need shared approaches in a community of dialogue and interpretation, we find either a fundamentalist certitude or a vague liberalism obstructs the discussion. As if all of this was not enough, the ecumenical scene is confused by what could be described as competing ecumenical circles. Competition between the three founding movements re-asserts itself in senseless ways. Classical ecumenism has hardly found a way of engaging with the fastest growing groups of Christians in New Churches and Independent Christian Groups, who have so much to teach about commitment to biblical faith and sacrificial giving, but these groups have little concern for the visible unity of the Church. Then the engagement with those of other faiths all too often leads to polarised reactions and the creation of new areas of difference. For some it becomes the prior ecumenism replacing the classical ecumenical agenda while others emphasize the relationship between a wider inclusive fellowship with an exclusive loyalty to belief in salvation through Jesus Christ, whose life, death and resurrection have a meaning for all people for all time.

But there is one other factor that almost more than any other, contributes to the confusion � the lack of agreement about the aim, the goal of the ecumenical movement. Gone are the days when we could assume that it was �organic unity�, �the all in each place linked to the all in every place and all time�, with the disappearance of distinct denominational traditions. Fears of some super church, have led to proposed competing models � �united not absorbed�, � reconciled diversity�, �full communion�, or simply a loose co-operation in causes for justice and peace, or lots of Christian shop windows from which a post- modern world can pick and choose, or concentration on the unity of all creation in a way that by passes the visible unity of the One, holy, Catholic and Apostolic church.

The scene is fragile, much of the passion has gone, the ecumenical structures of the 40�s and 50�s seem dated, the giants of the movement have gone and there are few young ecumenical enthusiasts.

The Way Ahead

What then in this complex ecumenical scene, with its indisputable achievements but at the same time its undeniable confusion and fragility is the way forward? The Gospel imperative remains � �May they all be one, so that the world may believe�. The summons to life together is an absolute summons; churches are not free to reject. The world with all its brokenness desperately needs communities that show the possibility of reconciled and reconciling life. And every act of reconciliation, however small, between those who once burnt one another a the stake, who plundered countries in the name of the cross of Christ, who stamped out indigenous identities, is a sign of hope that the deepest divisions, the bitterest of memories can, by God�s grace be healed. And every act of reconciliation that we make forms in us a people inclined to reconciliation. There must be no turning back.

We need first to re-express together what sort of life after Easter God invites us to live in and for the world, as a sign of possibility for all humanity. What would it be like if Christians were united not as some super trans- national corporation, but as a communion of men and women living sacrificially out of the abundance of God�s grace in word and sacrament � living in a way in which the personal was prior to the institutional, where local churches were �at home� in their context and served the locality aware at the same time of their inter-connectedness with all the local churches. And how would we treasure things that belong to our unity while rejoicing in a diversity we can hardly yet begin to imagine? And how would we live together with difference, listening to each other and exercising restraint while the mind of Christ for the Church was discovered through authentic processes of discernment and reception? And how would we live striving for the reconciliation and unity of all people? We need a renewed ecumenical vision of what we are called to be and to do together � a vision that will inspire.

Secondly, in today�s fragile ecumenical scene we need to do everything we can to work together for justice and peace, to take stands together against the culture of violence, the fragmentation of human life and the ravaging of creation. We know we are more effective together � and more effective when that togetherness includes all people of goodwill. And in acting together now we get a taste of a fuller life together.

Thirdly, if we are ever to enjoy Christian unity � a unity focussed in a common eucharist which expresses and nurtures the unity of the Church, then there is no way around the search for agreement in faith which is sufficient and required to overcome the divisions and hold us in graced belonging. And we must hold each other accountable now for the agreements we have already made. We must press one another with the question - What new forms of committed life, shared worship, common service, and mission are possible on the basis of existing agreements? We can�t wait until every theological jot and tittle is agreed before we move to one another. .

And the ecumenical circle has to be enlarged to include new Christian groups bringing new insights to the worn classical agenda, and new areas of engagement and action.

So there must be no turning back, however complex the issues, however fragile the scene. If enough of us can build on what already exists, be prophetic in our actions for justice and peace, generous in forgiving and receiving one another�s gifts, and above all if we can live an ecumenical spirituality which entails metanoia, a conversion to Christ and a conversion to one another in Christ, then the prospects for Christian unity must surely be fair in the new millennium and we just might witness more authentically to the sort of reconciled and reconciling life God wills for all.