Many in the western world are looking once more for spirituality, for justice, for beauty, for relationship - all of which the church ought to know something about, though ironically people are looking everywhere except the church to find them. Many in the former communist countries are looking for something which is neither the communism they knew nor the western consumerism they are getting in its place. Many in the so-called two-thirds world are looking for freedom and justice and recognizing that they are much more elusive than they had been led to believe. And in this context the church is finding its voice in new ways. We are reaching out and grasping again the wholistic gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel not just for souls and not just for bodies but for whole persons and the whole world, the whole cosmos which is groaning in travail.

        We are working in new ways for Christian unity and refusing to connive at the scandal of separation. We are learning from one another, and discovering that we have more in common than we had imagined. We are asking the hard questions about how the gospel applies to the real world and refusing to be put off by the sneers of the media and the threats of some politicians.

        We are starting to realize that the lies put out by the Enlightenment - that Christianity was disproved, outdated, and bad for your health - were the childish taunts of those who were anxious in case God's kingdom might call them after all to costly obedience. We are on the threshold of a great new work of God, a work of wholistic mission and evangelism in which God's kingdom will be announced, and Jesus will be named as Lord, openly and unhindered.

        And it is precisely at such points that we should expect the strongest winds and the fiercest waves to blow us off course, to turn the ship upside down, and to drown us all in the dark sea of postmodern amorality and factious in-fighting. And the answer is that we must keep up our courage and see the thing through.

        Don't be afraid, said the Lord to Paul in Corinth (18.9); speak and do not be silent, for I am with you. Keep up your courage, said the Lord to Paul after the hearing before the Council (23.11); as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome. Don't be afraid, said the angel to Paul on the boat (27.24); you must stand before the emperor, and God has granted safety to all who are sailing with you. We must keep our nerve. We must say our prayers.

        We must hold fast to the risen and ascended Lord, at whose name every knee shall bow, not least Caesar, Mammon, Aphrodite and Mars. We are on our way with the gospel, in the power of the Spirit. Let us strive for that holiness to which we are called, and for that unity in truth which demonstrates to the powers that Jesus is Lord (which is why some in the media are salivating in their eagerness that our little boat should break up; let's not make their day!).

        But never, never forget in the days to come: the reason you go through the storm is because you are carrying the good news of God's kingdom, to let the powers of the world know that Jesus is their rightful Lord. Let this be Luke's message, God's message, to us at this crucial turning point in our history: Hold on; keep up your courage; don't lose your nerve; ride out the storm, so that you can stand before the powers, announce God's kingdom, and proclaim Jesus as Lord, with all boldness and unhindered.

–The Rt. Rev. Dr. N. T. Wright is Bishop of Durham. This address was given to the Anglican Consultative Council this weekend past, June 26, 2005 A.D.