(Broadcast at 12.05 am New Years Day on national television)

Happy New Year. It is good to celebrate, but it is also good to be quiet from time to time. That is why I like to come here to the Chapel at Lambeth Palace to reflect on the past year to commit 1997 into God's hands.

In looking back there will be many who will be deeply thankful that 1996 has ended. For those of us who love Children 1996 will forever speak of Dunblane and some of the other terrible crimes committed against young children and adults alike. It is a reminder that at the very heart of a decent society there must be an uncompromising commitment to protecting the weak and vulnerable. But Christians have always insisted on the centrality of faith even in the midst of pain and suffering.

The panels above my head describe something of these tensions, in the history of the English Church. They begin with Pope Gregory the Great instructing a fearful Augustine to go to England. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597, and we shall celebrate the 1400th anniversary of that event this year. It is a chance to remember the depth of our Christian roots in this country. Other panels portraying his successors tell their own story of faith and courage. Thomas Becket, martyred in his own Cathedral and Thomas Cranmer, burnt at the stake.

Then, coming right up to date, there are pictures to remind us that the Church today is for all people, of every race and continent. Across the world, it is flourishing and growing testifying to the love and hope that can triumph even over death.

But have you noticed the one thing common to all the picture? In all, hands are prominent - hands reaching out for many different purposes - commanding, touching, healing, blessing and helping, reaching out to each other across cultures and oceans.

And for me that is a wonderful reminder of what genuine Christianity is. If worship does not end in action it is not genuine worship. hands lifted in prayer must result in hands reaching out to all the people with the love of God.

None of us knows what 1997 will bring. Nationally we will be facing a General Election. Individually, all kinds of challenges lie ahead, and many uncertainties. But there is also the presence of the unchanging God.

As we look to the Millennium many of us are asking questions about the kind of people and the kind of society we want to be. It is a good time to search our souls. God will be there as he always has been down the centuries.

Let me encourage you to make this prayer your own as we enter the New Year.

'Eternal God, I place myself into your hands this coming year. May we walk together, hand in hand, and in my actions may your will be done. Amen'.