A high level delegation of European Catholic and Protestant church leaders says in a newly published report that "nowhere his the ecumenical challenge more urgently felt" than in Ireland.
The delegation, from the Conference of European Churches (Protestant and Orthodox) and the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (Catholic), visited Ireland last October and November. It included Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the influential head of Pax Christi, who is sometimes mentioned as a possible next Pope.
In the report of its visit the delegation said it had been told that ecumenism ranked low on Irish churches' list of priorities.
The members singled out for particular praise what they called the "battlefront ecumenism" of the Cornerstone Community on Belfast's peace line. There they had talked to a Catholic priest and a Methodist minister who had together visited 45 families that had lost a member in the conflict.
This was "a disarming ministry", they said, "which led in most cases to a profound process of healing and reconciliation", and was widely accepted as a courageous example that transcended the "wall mentality" of the two communities and "broke new ground for sharing and healing".
It had become customary for many ministers to attend the funerals of victims of violence conducted by their colleagues across the divide. But the delegation noted that "generally speaking, this ecumenical consciousness is felt to be most visible and articulate among church leaders, and least developed at the local, grass roots level".
The delegation asked how the finish churches could best use the key moment - seen by many as sent by God - offered by the ceasefires. "Trust building is a central contribution of the churches to peace."
The churches would want to strengthen their inter community work, and "design programmes to help those who are forgotten, alienated and marginalised, irrespective of their church affiliation."
But practical co operation would have to be supplemented by symbolic expressions of Christian community.
"What are the liturgies and symbolic actions that will say to, the political parties that the churches wish to be recognised as partisans of peace? That they will not be content to sit by and wait for the politicians to solve the conflict? And how can the churches publicly repent of their direct involvement in distrust and hatred?"