Hume and Carey 'may boycott the Millennium Dome'

BY LUKE COPPEN
THE ARCHBISHOP Of Canterbury and Cardinal Hume will not attend the Millennium Dome celebrations unless the organisers devote significant time to Christian prayers, it emerged this week.
Dr George Carey told The Catholic Herald in an exclusive interview that "unless there is some Christian component in that celebration then I won't be there and he [Cardinal Hume] certainly won't be there.
"If we are invited and if there is going to be a significant moment of silence, saying the Lord's prayer together, perhaps one or two prayers, it will be worthwhile. If we cannot be guaranteed that, we will be in our churches."
A spokesman for Cardinal Hume said: "He has not yet decided where it would be most appropriate for him to be.,, Dr Carey's comments come a week after Cardinal Hume called for the Archbishop to lead the nation in prayer at the Dome ceremony. The Cardinal insisted "that, at midnight, as we usher in the new Millennium, the Archbishop of Canterbury be invited to pray to God, publicly and in the name of the whole nation."
Dr Carey said he was grate ful for the cardinal's "campaign", but said that it didn't matter who led the prayers as long as somebody did.
Dr Carey said that lobbying by the two churches had ensured a strong Christian content for the Dome's Spirit Zone, but warned: "The Dome is not the Millennium. It is just one nation's expression of celebration.
"Where we are putting our energies is in what happens in our parish churches in the regions, in our communities and the New Start."
Dr Carey emphasised that he and the cardinal were good friends, denying rumours of a rift between the two men. He said: "We get on extremely well. We are both completely convinced that the Millennium has no value if it is not anchored in the incarnation. It will be just a wonderful, glorious, but essentially factless ceremony unless it is connected with the birth of Jesus Christ."
Dr Carey defended his public calls for intercommunion, but admitted that the Catholic bishops' recent document on the Eucharist, One Bread One Body, had "closed the matter as far as the United Kingdom is concerned".
Full interview — p4 Editorial comment — p9