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This world includes some 1.7 billion Christian adherents. About a billion of these are Roman Catholics and more than 300 million are evangelical Protestants. World-wide, they are the two most rapidly growing Christian communities. Yet in many countries, including our own, the scandal of conflict between them obscures the scandal of the cross (1 Cor.1:23), thus crippling the one mission of the one Christ. By needless conflicts and divisions, both within and between our churches, we do disservice to the gospel by reinforcing the scepticism of many who are not yet Christian and we support division and dispute in our wider society.

In Ireland, as in other places, the Church is faced with the growing challenge of secularism, consumerism and post-modern scepticism that has led to a widespread decline in interest in Christianity and attendance at worship (note1). The recent public scandals involving Christian leaders in positions of trust have contributed to a growing loss of public confidence in the Church.
It was in the face of this missionary challenge that a group of Christians, drawn from Presbyterian, Methodist, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic and New Church traditions, met together to see how the mission of Christ might be advanced, especially in Ireland. This Statement is put forward as a means of furthering dialogue, with a view to facilitating a common witness by Irish Christians to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It outlines some important matters of faith that unite us in Christ and his mission, acknowledges specific problems, highlights opportunities and hopes in the relationship between Christians of differing traditions and leads finally to prayer that we, who are Christians in Ireland, may do our part to fulfil Christ's prayer for his Church and the world.

The group draws from the significant initiative in this direction taken by a similar group in the United States resulting in the production of "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" and "The Gift of Salvation."

The mission that we embrace together is the necessary consequence of the faith that we affirm together. Therefore :

1. The Sovereignty of the Holy Trinity

We give unreserved affirmation to the historic, orthodox belief in the Holy Trinity. The monotheistic faith of the Old Testament, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut.6:4), is affirmed and developed in the New "there is for us one God, the Father ... and there is for us one Lord, Jesus Christ ..." (1 Cor. 8:6). We recognise too that the Holy Spirit comes to us from the Father and the Son (Jn. 14:15, 26, 15:26). Hence within the unity of One God, we affirm the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three distinct persons. It is in the name of the Trinity that we are commissioned by Jesus to baptise: "baptise ... in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mat 28:20).
Therefore within the unity of the one God we recognise a diversity of being and function:

* The Father, Creator of heaven and earth, "who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph 4:6).

* The Son of God, Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer and Saviour of God's people (note 2).

* The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.

The early Church recognised this Trinitarian understanding of God as essential to the Christian faith and as a result formulated the Apostle's Creed, which we can, and hereby do, affirm together as an accurate statement of scriptural truth:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

2. The Abundance of Grace

We affirm that God's grace abounds to us through Jesus, bringing us salvation. This grace is so rich and multifaceted that the Biblical writers had to resort to the use of a multiplicity of metaphors to describe it: election, redemption, reconciliation, washing, propitiation, justification, adoption, birth, grafting and sanctification. Each of these metaphors emphasises a significant aspect of the believer's new relationship with God and the choice of which metaphor is used at any time is related to the perspective that is being addressed at that time. No one image is capable of conveying the full character of God's grace in all its dimensions. To focus all attention on a single image is to attempt to import into it a depth of meaning for which it was never intended. This can only lead to a reductionist view of grace and a distortion of the gospel.

Salvation is by grace, received by faith, with no help needed from good works or religious observances done to improve our chances of being saved. Introducing works of any kind would only serve to detract from the glory that rightly belongs to God alone, by affording us grounds for boasting and claiming merit.

Through prayer and study of Holy Scripture, and aided by the Church's reflection on the sacred text from earliest times, we have found that, notwithstanding some persistent and serious differences, we can together bear witness to the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. To this saving gift we now testify, speaking not for, but from and to, our several communities.

Always it is clear that the work of redemption has been accomplished once for all by Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross. Justification is central to the scriptural account of salvation, and its meaning has been much debated between Protestants and Catholics. It is a matter of history that "justification by faith alone" was of enormous significance in the conversion of Luther and that this doctrine became, through the controversies and polemics of the Reformation period, one of the key doctrines that divided Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

We agree that justification is not earned by any good works or merits of our own; it is entirely God's gift, conferred through the Father's sheer graciousness, out of the love that he bears us in his Son, who suffered on our behalf and rose from the dead for our justification. Jesus was "put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25). In justification, God, on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone, declares us to be no longer his rebellious enemies but his forgiven friends, and by virtue of his declaration it is so, for those who believe.

The New Testament makes it clear that the gift of justification is received through faith. "By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). By faith, which is also the gift of God, we repent of our sins and freely adhere to the gospel, the good news of God's saving work for us in Christ. By our response of faith to Christ, we enter into the blessings promised by the gospel. Faith is not merely intellectual assent but an act of the whole person involving the mind, the will, and the affections, issuing in a changed life. "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal.5:6)

The grace of justification in Christ and the gift of the Spirit received through faith (Galatians 3:14) are experienced and expressed in diverse ways by different Christians and in different Christian traditions, but God's gift is never dependent upon our human experience or our ways of expressing that experience. While faith is inherently personal, it is not a purely private possession but involves participation in the body of Christ. By baptism we are visibly incorporated into the community of faith and committed to a life of discipleship. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4).

We endorse wholeheartedly the words of Bernard of Clairvaux: "Whosoever, feeling compunction for his sins, hungers and thirsts after righteousness, let him believe in Thee, who 'justifies the ungodly'; and thus, being justified by faith alone, he shall have peace with God." (note 3) This accords fully with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone (sola fide). In affirming that "we are justified by faith alone" we also affirm that "the faith that justifies is not alone," (note 4) or it is dead and unable to save. Genuine, saving faith is always expressed by works of loving obedience, bearing fruits worthy of grace and proving our repentance, (note 5) just as "fruit ever comes from the living root of a good tree." (note 6)

3. The One Holy People.

We affirm that all who receive God's grace and are thereby washed, justified, regenerated, adopted, reconciled, ingrafted and sanctified (to use the various metaphors), are incorporated into the one holy people of God. There is only one people of God for whom these are true. Just as there is one God and Father, one Lord and one Spirit, so there can be only one body, one faith, one baptism and one table (Eph. 4:4-6, 1 Cor. 10:15-17, Gal 2:11-14). We may go further and say that God is not the Father of different families but of one, and Christ is not the husband of several brides but of one. Therefore, all who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour and are indwelt by his Spirit are brothers and sisters in Christ, by whatever name they might be known. We embrace as true Christians all who confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as Lord and Saviour, who love one another, who do good to others and pursue justice and peace.

In this matter, we recognise that we have not chosen one another. Rather, Christ has chosen us, and He has given us to each other. (Jn. 15:12-16). However imperfect our communion with one another, however deep our disagreements, we recognise that "we are members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus" (Eph 3:6). However difficult the way, we recognise that we are called by God to "unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph. 4:13).

4. The Activity of the Holy Spirit

We affirm that the Holy Spirit is the absolutely crucial agent in Christian conversion, which is described as beginning with the Spirit, as well as in all subsequent Christian living (Gal 3:2, 5:25). It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that the historic work of Christ becomes experiential reality in lives of Christians. It is by the Spirit that believers experience the grace of God and are incorporated into the Body of Christ. He indwells the Body, uniting its members to Christ and to each other, so that it becomes the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. He works in Christians, equipping and energising them for service, leading into all truth, directing and empowering them to carry out the mission of Christ. As the representative of Christ, therefore, the Spirit is sent to work sovereignly in the Church. In, for instance, the formation of the canon of the Scriptures, and in the orthodox response to the great Christological and Trinitarian controversies of the early centuries, we confidently acknowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We submit confidently to the authority of the Holy Spirit as to that of Christ himself, and trust him to work in us, directing us and empowering us to fulfil the commission of Christ in Ireland and elsewhere.

5. The Authority of Scripture

Christians are to teach and live in obedience to the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible, authoritative Word of God. Christ has promised to His church the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will lead us into all truth in discerning and declaring the teaching of Scripture (Jn. 16:13). We recognize that the Holy Spirit has so guided His church in the past, and continues to do so. We endorse the following statement:

"We are agreed that as "creatura verbi" the Church together with its Tradition, stands under the living Word of God and that the preacher and teacher of the Word is to be viewed as servant of the Word (cf. Lk 1 ,2) and must teach only what the Holy Spirit permits him to hear in the Scriptures. This hearing and teaching take place in a living combination with the faith, life and, above all, the worship of the community of Christ.

We are agreed that the development of doctrine and the production of confessions of faith is a dynamic process. In this process the Word of God proves its own creative, critical and judging power. Through the Word, therefore, the Holy Spirit guides the Church to reflection, conversion and reform." (note 7)

We rejoice in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that we share in the Body of Christ. We acknowledge that unity in the one Body of Christ is both a given and a goal (Eph. 4:3,13, Jn. 17:21). It is obvious to us that the Body through which Christ is present on earth must of necessity be both seen and heard. The Church will always be holy, because it belongs to Christ, and yet imperfect, because its members are still on earth. However, we do not know exactly how the unity we have been given through the Holy Spirit is to be given visible, concrete expression. We know that the unity to which we are called is like that of the Trinity, legitimising both diversity and unity, but not either diversity or unity to the exclusion of the other.

History suggests that the Church has not been successful in this matter. There has been a persistent tendency for a unity that drives out diversity or a diversity that prevents unity and the result has been a proliferation of bodies, some claiming to be themselves the Church. While acknowledging our indebtedness to historical tradition and the liberating contribution that comes from a proper sense of history, we need to be more open to the future and its opportunities and possibilities in the hands of God, as he uses us to fulfil the Great Commission.

We humbly acknowledge that there have been, and still are, serious differences in doctrine, worship, practice and piety, including the following:

* The church as an integral part of the Gospel or the church as a communal consequence of the Gospel.

* The church as visible communion or invisible fellowship of true believers.

* Scripture as authoritatively interpreted in the church or the sole authority of Scripture (sola scriptura).

* The magisterium (teaching authority) of the community or the "soul freedom" of the individual.

* The church as universal communion or local congregation.

* Ministry ordered in apostolic succession or the priesthood of all believers.

* Sacraments and ordinances as means of grace or as merely symbols of grace.

* The Lord's Supper as Eucharist sacrifice or memorial meal.

* Devotion to Mary and the saints or remembrance of Mary and the saints

* Baptism as sacrament of regeneration or testimony to regeneration.

This account of differences is by no means complete. Nor is the disparity between positions always so sharp as to warrant the "or" in the above formulations. Moreover, there are also significant differences on these and other matters within and among the various Protestant churches and within the Roman Catholic Church. But the differences listed above reflect deep and long standing disputes, at least some of which are authentic disagreements that have been, and still are, barriers to full communion between Christians. This situation is intensified and exacerbated by misunderstandings, misrepresentations, and caricatures that frequently belong to a different age. These must be cleared away if we are to search through our honest differences in a manner consistent with what we affirm together on the basis of God's Word. We do not presume to suggest that we can resolve the deep and long-standing differences between different Christian traditions, nor does this Statement attempt to do so. But we cannot simply resign ourselves to tolerating differences that divide us. We must pledge to continue to search for a better understanding of one another's convictions, and of the truth of God in Christ. In this connection we draw attention to the formal theological dialogues (note 8) of recent years and in particular those between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals (note 9), in the belief that there is no genuine renewal without reconciliation.

What we do know is that God intends that all Christians be in communion with one another. We do know that Christ is the way the truth and the life (Jn. 14:6) and as we are drawn closer to Him, we ought to be drawn closer to one another. Whatever may be the future form of the relationship between our Churches, we must begin now the work required to remedy what we know to be wrong in our present relationships. Such work requires trust and understanding, which in turn require an attention and submission to truth. In addition, we need the humility to consider, at least the possibility, that others may be better than ourselves. (Phil. 2:3)

Together we search for a fuller and clearer understanding of God's revelation in Christ, and His will for His disciples. In this search we need one another. We are both informed and limited by the histories and traditions of our communities and by our own experiences. Across the divides of Churches and experiences, we need to challenge one another, always speaking the truth in love, building up the body (Eph. 4:15-16). We testify now that in our searching together we have discovered what we can affirm together and, therefore, how we can contend together.

As we are bound together by Christ and His cause, so we are bound together in contending for justice, equality and freedom for all, and against all that opposes Christ and His cause, emboldened as we are by faith in His certain triumph. In the exercise of our public responsibilities there has been, in recent years, a growing convergence and co-operation between Christians from all traditions. We thank God for the discovery of one another as we strive together for a common cause. More importantly, we thank God for the discovery of one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, "in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal.3:28). Our co-operation as citizens is animated by our convergence as Christians. We promise that we will work to expand this pattern of convergence and co-operation.

We believe that the rule of God concerns all aspects of life in society at national and international levels, whether it be politics, economics, law, government, industrial relationships, education, welfare, the media or whatever other aspect. Personal and cultural values must be based on moral truth derived from the Word of God and godly reason.

The pattern of convergence between Evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians is, in large part, a result of common effort to value, respect and protect all human beings, especially the lives of the most vulnerable among us. As a consequence, we share a deep social concern about abortion, the rights of the child, men, women and children as victims of war, the exploitation and inequality of women, the growing culture of violence and death and the evil of oppression and torture.

Together we support the poor, the addicted, the excluded, the abused, the homeless and all who experience rejection in our society.

We contend together against all that devalues or damages human beings, families and communities. We share a deep concern on issues such as drug misuse, pornography, sexual abuse, euthanasia, marriage breakdown, prejudice and racism.

In the context of Ireland we share a particular concern to reduce and eliminate sectarianism in our own lives, in our churches, and in our communities. We want to work together to bring to an end sectarian murder, bitterness, hatred and division. We want to help shape a society in which people are inclusive, a community in which we have mutual respect.

Together we seek justice in our communities and in the world. We are concerned at the increasingly arbitrary power and influence of multinationals, and the promotion in the media of a culture of commercialism, materialism and secularism. We share a deep concern about global inequality between the developed and the developing world, exemplified by world debt issues, the arms industry and the landmines issue. We acknowledge our urgent responsibility to promote the protection and improvement of our environment for this and future generations.

We recognise together our adverse contribution to, or blindness to, many of the issues described above, and we commit ourselves together to raise awareness about these and promote action on them both within and outside the Church.

We commend all those who are currently working in the areas we have mentioned and commit ourselves to involvement with and support of them in whatever way we can, contending together for a better world.

Our missionary hope is motivated by the clear desire of God that "all should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). This hope makes necessary the Church's missionary task. How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can people preach unless they are sent?" (Rom.10:14,17). The Church is sent by Christ in terms of the Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt. 28:19-20). The Church is, therefore, in all places and at all times, in mission, and lives by and for the carrying out of that mission.

As believers, we commit ourselves, in obedience to the Great Commission of our Lord, to evangelising everyone. We must share the fullness of God's saving truth with all, including members of our several communities. Evangelicals must speak the gospel to Catholics and Catholics to Evangelicals, always speaking the truth in love, so that "working hard to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace . . . the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God" (Ephesians 4:3, 12-13 ).

The teaching of our Lord is unmistakable. The credibility of His mission in the world (and in Ireland in particular) is dependent upon the unity and love of His disciples as expressed in Jesus' prayer in John 17: "May they all be one; as you Father are in Me, and I in you, so also may they be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me". This same connection between unity and witness is strongly echoed in Acts 4:32-36. The one Christ and one mission include many other Christians, as in Eastern Orthodox Churches and among those not commonly identified as Evangelical. All Christians are encompassed in the prayer, "May they all be one." It is thus that we are to "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel" (Phil. 1:27). All who truly believe in Jesus Christ are brothers and sisters in the Lord and must not allow their differences, however important, to undermine this great truth, or to deflect them from bearing witness together to God's gift of salvation in Christ. "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought" (1 Cor. 1:10).

The question of unity in our Christian witness unavoidably turns us to points of serious tension, as already noted. We are rightly concerned with matters of truth. Going further, our Lord has made clear that the evidence of love among His disciples is crucial to our Christian witness. Love is not always an obvious characteristic of some evangelising bodies.

It is understandable that Christians who bear witness to the Gospel will generally do so from the standpoint of their own denomination. But it is necessary to draw a distinction between evangelising and what is commonly called "proselytising" or "sheep stealing," that is, the practice of recruiting people deliberately from another community for purposes of denominational or institutional aggrandisement.

We endorse the following statement from the Baptist-Roman Catholic International Conversations 1984-1988):
" We agree that evangelization is a primary task of the Church and that every Christian has the right and obligation to share and spread the faith. We also agree that faith is the free response by which people, empowered by the grace of God commit themselves to the gospel of Christ ... We affirm:

* that witness must be given in a spirit of love and humility

* that it leaves the addressee full freedom to make a personal decision

* that it does not prevent either individuals or communities from bearing witness to their own convictions, including religious ones."

We make six observations:

1. However strongly committed we are to our own tradition, we affirm that Christ is present in our several communities, and therefore opportunity and means for growth in Christian discipleship are available in each.

2. We acknowledge that those converted must be given full freedom and respect in their decision as to the community in which they will live their new life in Christ. In this they are ultimately responsible to God, and we dare not interfere with the exercise of that responsibility, but must protect it assiduously.

3. We reject proselytising among believing members of another Christian community through false witness, through casting unjust and uncharitable suspicions, or through misrepresentation of others and ourselves.

4. It is sadly quite usual for a convert to disparage his or her former church or denomination and to extol the virtues of his or her newly adopted one. All churches have important strengths and obvious weaknesses; none is without faults and all are continually in need of renewal and reform.

5. In view of the growing number of those in Ireland who do not profess or practice the Christian faith, we acknowledge the priority of reaching these people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

6. We affirm that all authentic witness must have as its goal the conversion of sinners to God through repentance and faith in Christ by the power of the Spirit in response to the grace of God proclaimed in the Gospel.

We recognise that, for historical and theological reasons, different churches have developed different understandings of how baptism, new birth, conversion and membership of the church are related. Therefore, different churches will have different ways of dealing with those who have undergone conversion. This can give rise to problems for united Christian witness and in cross-community conversion.

The love of Christ and the call to mission compel us to avoid tension between our Churches and, where it exists, to do what we can to reduce and eliminate it. That same love and call challenge us to explore patterns of working and witnessing together in order to advance the one mission of Christ. As Evangelicals and Catholics, we thank God for all that was good in the Reformation and in the Counter-Reformation. As disciples together of the Lord Jesus Christ, who recognise our debt to our Christian forebears and our obligations to our contemporaries and those who will come after us, we affirm our unity in the gospel that we have here professed. In our continuing discussions, as we affirm our unity in the Spirit, we earnestly aspire to an ever fuller unity in the truth. Only unity in the truth can be pleasing to the Lord and Saviour whom we together serve, for he is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Our common resolve is made imperative by obedience to the truth of God revealed in the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, and by submission to the Holy Spirit's direction, until our Lord returns in glory. Aware of our imperfections and differences and disagreements, we are driven to commend one another to God "who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20).

We repent of attitudes, words and actions that have fostered hatred and divisions within and among our various traditions. We acknowledge that we have shown indifference, distrust and hostility towards each other, even though Jesus Christ has told us to love our neighbour. We have grown up with negative and distorted views of each other's faith and churches, and have failed to do justice to each other through engaging in dialogue. We have failed to challenge bigoted attitudes in our homes, communities and churches. Many have been turned away from the Christian faith because we have not reflected the teaching of Christ in our lives. We have sinned against one another and against God. We humbly ask the forgiveness of God and one another, and pray for the grace to amend our own lives and to actively seek in every way possible to help change divisive attitudes in our communities.

As we look back on our common Christian witness over the past 2000 years, we repent of the grievous mistakes of the past and of the atrocities committed in the name of Christ against non-Christian groups, making the very name of Jesus offensive to them to this very day. In particular, we acknowledge with sorrow and shame the genocidal Christian persecution of the Jews during the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and, more recently, the Holocaust. For the extreme violence, contempt and ridicule with which we Christians have treated God's ancient people in the past, and even today, we express humble and unreserved repentance. We declare with Paul " ... from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved." (Rom.11:28). With Paul we acknowledge that it is we who "being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree." (Rom.11:17). We openly declare our debt to them, from whom Christ has come, and pray for the fulfilment of all God's promises to them.

In addition, we acknowledge the pain and hurt caused to the Moslem world during the Crusades. It is our earnest prayer for these, and all others who have been hurt by the sinful behaviour of those bearing the name of Christian, that they too, like us, might come to experience the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

Rev. Tony Davidson (Armagh). Rev. Leslie Crampton (Athy). Rev. Dr. Godfrey Brown (Ballycastle). Rev.Robert Bell (Ballyclare). Rev. David & Mairisime Stanfield (Ballynahinch). Mike Oman (Banbridge). Rev. Alan Abernethy, Rev. Dr. David Burke (Bangor). Ian Barr, Rev. Sam Burch, Rev. Lesley Carroll, Rev. Norman Chambers, Rev. Dr. Dennis Cooke, Pastor Philip Corrigan, John Duncan, Peter Farquharson, Rev. Andrew Forster, Pastor Alan George, Rev. Drew Gibson, Dr. Dennis Gough, Rev. Brian Grogan, The Venerable A.E.T. Harper, Rev. Ken Mc Bride, Rev. Patrick McCafferty, Roy McClenaghan, Rev. Ian McKee, Rev. Derek McKelvey, Dr. Johnston McMaster, Billy Mitchel, Rev. Dr. John Morrow, Rev. Diarmuid O'Riain, Rev. Dr. Kenneth Robinson, Rev. Stanley Ross, Sandra Rutherford, Rev. Malcolm Scott, Rev. Paul Symonds, Rev. Professor J.P. Taylor, Pastor Jim Thompson, Rev. Senan Timoney, Jamie Treadwell, Rev. Cecil Wilson (Belfast). Angela McAnespie (Benburb). The Most Rev. Dr. Richard Clarke (Bishop of Meath and Kildare). Rev. Ferran Glenfield (Blackrock). Pastor Robert Dunlop (Brannockstown). Rev. Canon Arthur Houston (Carrigaline). Rev. Mark Harvey (Clones). Rev. Peter Anderson (Cobh). Rev. Brian Cruise (Cookstown). Sr. Brigid Dunne (Cork). Rev. Neal Carlin (Derry). Rev. Alvin Little (Donaghadee). Rev. Don Gamble (Dromore). Rev. Des Bain, Carol Barry, Rob Clarke, Jim Donnan, Br. Sean Fleming, Veronica Flynn, Rev. John Grennan, Ronan Johnston, Rev. Paul Kingston, Morgan McStay, Tim O'Connell, Rev. Gerry O'Hanlon, Rev Peter Reilly, Marie Scully, Rev. Martin Tierney (Dublin). Rev. Philip Agnew (Dunlaoghaire). Rev John W. Stewart (Enniskillen). Rev. Dr. Robert MacCarthy, Tim Nichols (Galway). Rev. Roy Patton (Helen's Bay). Rev. John Dinnen (Hillsborough). Paul Betts, Rev. H. Alastair Dunlop, David Hewitt, Gavin Pantridge, Stephen Perrott, Dr. John Ross (Holywood). Rev. Ciaran Dallatt (Jordanstown). Rev. Stephen Rea (Kerrykeel). Rev. Eric Meyer (Kesh). Rev. Richard Hill (Larne). Michael McKenna (Letterkenny). Rev. David Bruce, Peter Crory, Rev. Dr. Gordon Gray, Pastor George Hilary, Canon John McCammon, Rev. Charles McMullen (Lisburn). Rev. Joe McCormick (Londonderry). Rev. Dr. Trevor Morrow (Lucan). Rev. Terence Cadden, The Ven. Ken Good, Rev. Stephen van Os, Brendan Blaney, Rev. Stanley Bourke (Lurgan). Rev. Noel Bradley (Maynooth). Rev. Ronnie Mitchel (Monaghan). Rev. Sam Allen (Monkstown). Rev. John Carlisle (Newry). Rev. Ian Ballentine, Therese Gallagher (Newtownabbey). Stephen Smyth, Rev. Jim Stothers (Newtownards). Rev. Peter Good, Rev. Brendan McCarthy (Omagh). Rev. David Chillingworth (Portadown). Tomas Carey (Randalstown). The Very Rev. Christopher Peters (Rosscarbery). Rev. Niall & Gerry Griffin, Rev. Jim Simms (Rostrevor). Rev. Jack Heaslip (Summerhill). Rev. Finian Lynch (Tralee). Rev. Bert Armstrong, Rev. Brian McMillen (Warrenpoint).

(note 1) See, for example, statistics in Irish Christian Handbook, MARC Europe, 1992; 28th Edition Social Trends, Office of National Statistics Annual Publication; 1997 Census of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church House, Belfast.

(note 2) "We confess together that just as God is unique, the Mediator and Reconciler between God and humankind is unique, and that the fullness of reconciliation is entire and perfect in Him. Nothing and nobody could replace or duplicate, complete or in any way add to the unique mediation accomplished 'once for all' (Heb.9:12) by Christ, "mediator of a new covenant" (Heb.9:15)." (Report on Reformed-Roman Catholic Dialogue 1984-1990)

(note 3) Bernard, Opera, quoted in James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, Banner of Truth, 1981, pp 110,111.

(note 4) Calvin.

(note 5) In the words of the Reformed / Roman Catholic International Dialogue (1984-1990):
"We recognise that our justification is a totally gratuitous work accomplished by God in Christ. We confess that the acceptance in faith of justification is itself a gift of grace. By the grace of faith we recognise in Jesus of Nazareth ... the one who saves us and brings us into communion of life with God. To rely for salvation on anything other than faith, would be to diminish the fullness accomplished and offered in Jesus Christ... The person who has received grace is called to bear fruits worthy of that grace ..."

(note 6) Calvin, on James 2:18 in Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, Edinburgh, 1840, p312.

(note 7) Reformed - Roman Catholic Conversations (The Presence of Christ in Church and World, 1977), para. 26.

(note 8) Lutheran/Roman Catholic (1972, '78, '80, '81) Lutheran/Reformed/Roman Catholic (1976) Methodist/Roman Catholic (1971, '76, '81) Pentecostal/Roman Catholic (1976) Anglican/Roman Catholic (1981)

(note 9) We endorse in particular the following statement, taken from the Report on the Baptist-Roman Catholic International Conversations, (1988):
"Discussion of our witness to Christ has revealed that our two communities are one in their confession of Jesus Christ as Son of God, Lord and Saviour. The faith in Christ proclaimed in the New Testament and expressed in the first four Ecumenical Councils is shared by both our Churches. Our discussion uncovered no significant difference with regard to the doctrine of the person and work of Christ, although some did appear with regard to the appropriation of Christ's saving work. We believe that this communion of faith in Christ should be stressed and rejoiced in as a basis for our discussions of other areas of Church doctrine and life, where serious differences may remain."