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[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

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Title:FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 
Jan. 27, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.1.4.10]

FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK

(ACNS) Unity is not an option for the Christian.  It is an imperative
which
springs from the very depth of Jesus' own prayer that all who claim
allegiance to him might be one.  Yet almost from the beginning there has
been difference, diversity, conflict, which in the course of history has
led to division.

Standing as we do towards the end of the millennium, we inherit the
painful
fact that the Church is divided.  At the same time we can rejoice that
the
churches are engaged in a positive quest for unity, not for its own
sake,
not as an end in itself, but for the sake of the world.  We must remain
committed, whatever the obstacles, however impossible ecclesial unity
may
yet appear.

And here surely must be a more credible model which the Church sets
before
the world, whereby the gun and bomb are rejected out of hand in favour
of
two altogether more powerful weapons - prayer and intercession.

We recognise and respect each other as brothers and sisters in the One
Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ;  we accept the fact that some things are not
possible together, and that is a source of deep pain for all;  at the
same
time we encourage one another in praying and working together for the
sake
of the world and its peoples, for their well-being and unity - ourselves
pilgrims together in the way of Christ's death and resurrection.

First published in the Westminster Cathedral Bulletin of January 1994
written by the then Bishop of London, Dr. David Hope.