Christian unity was strongly emphasised by Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor in his sermon at his installation yesterday in Westminster Cathedral. The Mass, which he celebrated flanked by Cardinal Tom Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow, and Cardinal Cahal Daly, former Archbishop of Armagh, was attended by a large number of guests from other Churches, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey.
Dr Carey's predecessor, Lord Runcie, was also present, along with eight other Church of England bishops, among them Bishop Mark Santer of Birmingham - who until last year was Archbishop Murphy-O'Connor's opposite number as Anglican co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC II) - leaders of the Free Churches, and representatives of other faiths. The whole ceremony was broadcast live by BBC television.
Recollecting that "tears came to my eyes" when he watched Pope John Paul II and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Runcie, praying together in Canterbury Cathedral during the Pope's 1982 visit, Archbishop Murphy-O'Connor said that he thought to himself: "This is how it ought to be, this is how the enmities, the misunderstandings, the hurts of the past must end - in common prayer, in a communion that is real, and in a common witness to the one Christ in whom we are already one."
He was of course aware of the obstacles and difficulties on the path to full Christian unity. "The road to Christian unity is like a road with no exit, a pilgrimage of grace we make together," he continued. "More and more, it seems to me that all of us who profess Jesus Christ must speak with one voice to give witness to him in this strange and wonderful new world in which we live. I pledge myself to do so with my whole heart."
The new archbishop also underlined the need for a Christian voice to be heard in national life. "Is it not extraordinary that, in this world of such technological advancement, so many people live in dire poverty, while we claim so much of the world's riches?" he asked.
Everyone was meant to live by what was true. "We are not free people when, as individuals or as a society, we live in ways that undermine or deny the truth of how we are meant to live," he said. "This truth is fundamentally that every human being has a dignity" being made "in the image and likeness of God, and that dignity must be protected and nourished above everything else."
But sadly there were many things in our society that undermined and trivialised what were gifts of God. "Unless the truth about the dignity of people, about the family, about the common good of our society are spoken about, critically and clearly, then the freedom that we boast about is not really freedom at all but an imprisonment by the darker sides of human nature," the archbishop added.
Earlier in his sermon, Archbishop Murphy-O'Connor evoked the memory of Pope John XXIII: "Like that great Pope John of happy memory, I have no time for prophets of gloom. I do not believe these are gloomy times for the Catholic Church in our country. When the skies are dark, the light shines more brightly."
And he began his sermon with a reference to an early Christian inscription he had come across many years ago when on holiday in the Hebrides. "On this stone was written the words, `Pilgrim Cormac', and underneath, `He went beyond what was deemed possible'," said the archbishop in what many will hope to be a promise of what his ministry has in store.