I would like to begin by sharing small human story from my childhood or indeed before my childhood. The story begins with the sale of a farm in the early 1920s near the town of Roscrea in north Tipperary. When this farm was put up for sale a group of small farmers, all Roman Catholics, and including my own dad, decided to buy the place.
The idea was that they would divide it into lots, do some trading and exchanging with what they had already, so that each one of them might end up with a viable holding. A very reasonable and laudable objective.
Then came the bad news. Another local farmer called Bob Lewis was interested in buying the place. Bob, into the bargain, was a member of the Church of Ireland.
It is well to remember that in the early 1920s we were still only a couple of years out of the War of Independence followed by the Civil War. The old prejudices, not far beneath the surface, became inflamed. The group set about stopping Bob Lewis's ambitions with intimidatory threats to his home and property. Bob withdrew and the sale of land and the subsequent divisions went ahead as planned.
Bob Lewis might well have carried the grievance to his grave. He was, however, a bigger man than that. Within a few years he was warm friends with all his neighbours, including his former intimidators.
In July, 1941, Bob Lewis died and his funeral took place in the local Church of Ireland church of Bournea. My dad was there despite dire warnings from my mum that it was forbidden by our Church. At that time, sadly, our Church forbade us to share in prayer and worship with Christians of other denominations.
My dad was having none of this. As far as he was concerned Bob Lewis was a decent man who held out the hand of friendship to him; despite the injustice done to him. It was right to honour him in death, even without the approval of his Church, and he was a man who had great reverence for his Church.
I thank God for Bob Lewis and for my dad. I thank God for Bob's generous forgiveness for the wrong done to him. I thank God for my dad's courage in refusing to believe it could be wrong to join in prayer with his fellow Christians to pray for the repose of a soul of a neighbour, especially a neighbour whom he had wronged in the past and who had forgiven him.
A SIMPLE story. A story not recorded in the annals of ecumenism, but it's a story of ecumenism at local level before we learned how to pronounce the word.
Many of us are at times impatient, and we ought to be impatient, with the slow progress on the journey towards Christian unity. It is, however, important to remember that there has been some important progress over the past 20 to 30 years.
It has been a long journey from my dad's attending Bob Lewis's funeral and disobeying the rule of his own Church in doing so. It has been a long journey from there to a position where we can come together in prayer and worship confident that God is with us as we do so.
It has been a long journey from the sadness and isolation forced on many a young couple who wanted to share their life and love in marriage, but who belonged to different Christian denominations.
It has been a long journey from that sadness and isolation to the joyfulness of today's inter church marriages witnessed by ministers of both denominations. And, if one is apportioning blame for the pain and hurt inflicted, I believe that the principal fault was on our side - to our eyes' today the Roman Catholic Ne Temere decree was indeed contrary to the spirit of Christian generosity and love. I feel that many of us would want to apologise to and ask forgiveness from our non Roman brethren for that pain and hurt.
It has been a long journey from there to here, but there has been progress. There is a long journey still to be travelled.
As we travel on that journey it is important to be aware of and to value what both our traditions share. We share above all our faith in Jesus Christ, our belief that God entered our world in human form to bring us salvation through his life band passion, his death and resurrection.
We share a common faith in a sacramental Christianity with its foundation in baptism incorporating us all into the one Christ.
We share a common faith in the celebration of the Eucharist - with our liturgy of the Word and liturgy of the Eucharist - each of us believing that Christ is really and truly present at our Eucharistic celebration. There are, of course, differences between us as to the precise nature of that presence.
THERE is, I believe, a feeling amongst most of us that we have not been making progress in recent years. Which of us does not look forward to the day when we can go beyond dour gathering for prayer together? Which of us does not long to share together in the Eucharist, each of us content in our faith in the presence of Christ whatever be the nature of that mysterious presence? Here I ask for patience from our non Roman brethren. I am aware that you are ready to share in this way with us, but we see that sharing not as a step on the way but as the ultimate goal of full unity.
The dialogue must continue. The dialogue must be a dialogue of love. It must also be a dialogue of truth. Truth and love are never in conflict, and to undervalue truth even at a time when truth is painful is never an act of love.
