By the Revd Graham Arnold, Whitstable, Kent, England

In a way, I am amazed at how little the Millennium seems to be impacting upon the majority of Christians. The political wranglings and questions of appropriateness stirred up by the national Millennium Dome project in Greenwich seem to have found most people's 'off' switch, as if that were the beginning and the end of the matter. And so many of the church members both Michael Aihnan and I have been speaking to in recent months, from across the town - including some of the church leaders! - seem to have little enthusiasm, and thoughts and plans little different to anyone else's. So, there is talk of a 'big bash' or booze up, of staying home quietly as always at the year's transition, and even of jumping on to the bandwagon of wanting to work for an astronomical - and in my view, immoral - wage. It seems to be a weighty bit of evidence to back-up the findings of a Gallup poll, undertaken in March last year, which revealed that fewer than 1 in 6 British residents recognise that the Millennium marks the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. Yet that is what the Millennium should be about.

So, the Millennium DOES matter:

Because it is, first and foremost, a Christian festival, a celebration of, and thanksgiving for, the first 2000 years in which the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has helped shape and influence world history, it should matter to those of us who regard ourselves to be his friends and followers today. But - and here's an interesting thing - it seems to matter to other people as well, for if the same Gallup poll is to be taken at all seriously, we learn from it, too, that once the people questioned were told about the Millennium's true significance, more than two thirds agreed that its Christian origin should properly be reflected in the celebrations. Even people of other major faiths, far from being offended at the suggestion of the festival being observed as overtly Christian, seem to be positively encouraging of us to take that line.

Of course there are reasons why, as the Christian Church, we should aim for a spirit of reflection and humble examination of ourselves and our kind as a needed component of our Millennium observances because, woven in to the first 2000 years, there are some stark and shocking episodes of how the name of Christ has been misused, indeed abused, for the sake of some crusade or cause or another. (And let's not think that all such episodes are confined to the past!) It seems that no religion is exempt from our human spoiling of it.

But, there is also a great deal about the Christian faith evidenced in the last two millennia, and (I would hope) in our own individual lives, which should rightfully direct us to want to celebrate Jesus Christ's arrival into the world, and to be thankful for the great drive for love and truth and justice which faith in his name and example has inspired in so many people in so many ways. More than that, there is also a duty on our part to give fresh and renewed expression - yes, with joyful enthusiasm! - to the real and lasting Easter hope which the world calls out for in our own age as much as, if not more than, that of an age gone before. There is a real need to help give timeless meaning and reliable hope to a world rapidly, and uncomfortably, changing around us.

"The task of the churches in the Millennium is to forge a link between the year 2000, the name of Jesus Christ, and the possibility of personal meaning and public hope. " (Churches Together in England mission statement.)

If, as Christians, we do not actively engage in that process, who on God's earth will?