2. September 2006

1 Peter 2.4-10; John 17.20-26

It is a great joy to be with you today in Berne as Anglicans and Christ Catholics in Switzerland join in this great celebration of 75 years of full communion, enabled by the Bonn Agreement. My joy comes not only from the theological significance of this accomplishment which is itself great, but from knowing that this ecumenical achievement has, in Switzerland, not simply remained a text on the shelf of theologians. It is now part of the life-blood of both our Churches. And this reality is a precious sign of the unity and reconciliation which is at the heart of who we are: the fellowship of those baptised into Christ. This sign is shown forth today as my brother bishop Fritz René and I stand together, but also as priests and people from very different histories and backgrounds are one body around the altar table.

When I was in seminary, I had a professor of pastoral theology Father Buchner, who close to the start of the first year, required us in one of his classes to sit down and write our own obituary notice. This was not an easy task. The purpose behind Fr Buchner's request was to require us seminarians to come to terms with our own mortality, But it also forced us to think about what we would like the world to remember us by when we depart this world.

In the ancient world the last words of a great hero were recorded and reverenced as the will and testament of that person. In the Old Testament we have examples of this in the final blessings of the great patriarchs on their deathbeds. Today we have just heard part of what is known as the "farewell discourse" of our Lord Jesus Christ. We hear his final words to his disciples before his death which was just hours away. The Church treasures these words - because they express the final wish, indeed even the command of our Lord to his disciples.

I cannot stress strongly enough how vital it is that each Christian hear and act on this prayer of Jesus, "that they may all be one". Through these words he is expressing his will for us, his disciples, as he is entrusting us to continue his mission. Christ our Lord founded one Church and one Church only. That is what we believe, that is what we state boldly every time we recite the Creed. This is what we are commanded to uphold and to make manifest. Unity is at the heart of our faith. If anyone asks you what is at the heart of the Christian faith, it is our calling to engage in God's mission - and God's mission is to bring all into unity with him.

Holy Scripture teaches us very clearly that the will of God is to gather the whole of creation into the loving arms of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in union with him, in the power of the Holy Spirit, all are brought into loving fellowship or communion with God the Father. The World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra in 1991 stated eloquently: "The purpose of God according to holy scripture is to gather the whole of creation under the Lordship of Christ Jesus in whom, by the power of the Holy Spirit, all are brought into communion with God (Ephesians 1). And the Church exists for one purpose - to be the foretaste of this great unity, of this communion with God and with one another. To manifest that communion in prayer, in love and in action and thus to be a sign to the whole world of our union with God. This is the mission of the Church.

Dear friends, please note that Jesus's prayer to the Father is not that there be no questions or discussions among his followers. Jesus does not pray "Father grant that they may agree on everything". The unity to which we are called is not about uniformity; it is a much deeper calling. In his prayer Jesus asks that "we may be completely one" But this is to indicate that there should be no remainder, no-one left out of the Kingdom of God. There is to be a completeness to the reconciliation for which we are co-workers.

So you can see what a scandal it is that we Christians are divided! We live in a world which appears to be fragmenting and dividing ever more seriously. I refer, not only to international conflicts and ethnic divisions. Even at a local level in Europe, peoples are turning against their neighbours, against those who seem different. Suspicion, mistrust and fear are increasing - driving God's children away from each other and thus away from His goal of unity for all.

So a divided Church - that very instrument which is to proclaim God's hope and live God's unity - a divided Church completely obliterates the message we are trying to show to the world which is that "There is one body and one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."

The unity for which Christ prayed in our Gospel reading today, "that they may all be one." (John 17.21) is not an optional extra added onto the life of the Church. It is of the essence. It should pervade all that we do and say. It must become part of the organic life of the Church, or else we are not living the Church's mission according to our Lord's command.

So let us not forget, dear brothers and sisters, that the Bonn Agreement of 1931 between the Church of England and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, is not just a theological agreement. It is not merely a text which has enabled close fellowship - it is an instrument which serves the unity which we know to be God's plan for the whole of creation. It compels us forward to seek the unity and live the unity which is Christ's will and which is central to our mission and discipleship.

As part of our celebration today, each parish community has come today with bricks, symbolic bricks, decorated to represent the people gathered in each of our congregations. Why bricks? Of course, because St Peter in the Epistle today teaches us that we are living stones, that we are building together a spiritual house, and that this spiritual house is established on the great cornerstone - Christ himself. The Greek word for house is oikos from which we get the word oikoumene, in English "ecumenism". Our mission as Christians is to participate in the building of the kingdom of God. This great building project was inaugurated by Jesus Christ himself, but is carried on today by you and by me. As we disciples of Jesus Christ engage in the work of unity, we are urged by St Peter to remember that we are engaged in the building of a house, a home, for all in this world, a family home for all people, united around our one Father.

Our discipleship is a building project. We are part of the unity-building team of Jesus - entrusted with our Lord's vision for God's creation. This is why our Lord speaks so strongly in the Gospel today about unity.

That is why Christian unity is so essential. We cannot witness to this unity which is God's will while we live separated from one another. Our two traditions have now walked together in fullest unity for 75 years. There is no greater witness to our oneness than the sacramental life which we share fully. We are not merely co-operating. We are not simply being friendly with each other. We are not simply helping each other. (I hope we are doing all this!) We are living the full unity to which we are called and through that unity witnessing to Christ's mission in this world.

At the eucharist which we share, we take the broken bread of Christ's Body and take it into all our separated individual bodies, and by that action and by the power of the Holy Spirit, our separated bodies become one body. The pieces come back together. The bricks which will build the kingdom are brought together by the power of the Holy Spirit as we live our life in sacramental communion.

Our union as Anglicans and Old Catholics in Switzerland, even in Europe, may seem modest in global terms, when we consider the extent of the world's disunity. Nevertheless, it is an important and significant step which is in the direction which accords with our Lord's will as we hear in today's Gospel.

75 years ago we came together because we responded to our Lord's command. Remember that we live a common sacramental life today, even as we come from diverse backgrounds, traditions and cultures, to be a beacon of God's love and unity in a broken world. May Christ use the unity we share to build the kingdom of God, as we show symbolically today with our "bricks". The mortar which will hold these bricks together is the sacramental bond of communion and love which we celebrate today, a bond which is enlivened by the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit which has made us living stones, a holy priesthood, built on Christ who is the chief cornerstone.