The
Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland has praised the progress made on the island
towards reconciliation and understanding between people of different
traditions and called all on Christians to fight against division.Speaking at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast on Tuesday at the invitation of the Dean, Very Reverend John Mann, for Christian Unity Week, Archbishop Charles Brown said relationships “had come a long way” and “we are profoundly indebted to those who worked so hard and who risked so much to bring us to where we are today”.
The nuncio said Christians must be both a sign and cause of unity throughout the world.
“When societies and peoples are divided by suspicion and by the memory of painful historical events, the followers of Jesus Christ need to be the ones who show to others that reconciliation is possible. In this way, we become a sign and a cause of a wider unity,” he said.
The Christian Unity service was attended by two Church of Ireland bishops, three Catholic bishops, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, and the representative of the Methodist President.
Archbishop Brown also preached in St Patrick’s (Church of Ireland) Cathedral in Armagh on Wednesday.