"We Christians today may feel that our faith and our witness are not making headway and that they are like ‘the tired waves, vainly breaking’. But we ought to remember that the Church has always been in crisis and always in need of reformation. We may not feel we have the answers to all the searchings or questions of the individual or of our society. We may long for a more generous self-sacrifice that is a counter-sign to the affluence that can too easily bring about greed and selfishness. We may long for a wider vision to which seeks the common good of every one."

In calling for improved dialogue between believers and non-believers, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor could just as easily have noted that society at large "has always been in crisis and always in need of reformation." However, the Cardinal of all people should realise that, theologically, the likes of Richard Dawkins are never going to understand the faith of Christians: they will be ever hearing but never understanding, ever seeing but never perceiving; the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

If we are "to establish the shared values that sustain our plural society" what is needed is an approach modelled by the church leaders in America who two days ago published An Evangelical Manifesto. In it they acknowledge, "As followers of 'the narrow way,' our concern is not for approval and popular esteem. Nor do we regard it as accurate or faithful to pose as victims, or to protest at discrimination." Instead they echo the conclusions reached by Christopher Watkin in our recent Cambridge Paper, By any other name?, calling upon Evangelicals to:

1. Reaffirm their identity as Christians who define themselves, their faith, and their lives according to the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth;
2. Reform their own behaviour, not only to shape their faith and their lives according to the teaching and standards of the Way of Jesus, but to do so again and again; and
3. Rethink their place in public life, seeking to be faithful to the freedom, justice, peace, and well-being that are at the heart of the kingdom of God, to bring these gifts into public life as a service to all, and to work with all who share these ideals and care for the common good.

The ideas they express throughout their paper are ones the Jubilee Centre wholly subscribe to - much could be quoted, but the following will suffice: "We believe that being disciples of Jesus means serving him as Lord in every sphere of our lives, secular as well as spiritual, public as well as private, in deeds as well as words, and in every moment of our days on earth, always reaching out as he did to those who are lost as well as to the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed, the socially despised, and being faithful stewards of creation and our fellow-creatures." It is here that the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales will find his wider vision that seeks the common good of every one.

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