Let me begin this address by saying how delighted I am to have the opportunity to share with you in this important conference. We are all sorry that Dr Billy Graham is unwell but glad that he is watching this while confined to his sickbed. Billy, we salute your vision in bringing us all together. We thank God for you and all you have achieved under God. May I, as President of the Anglican Communion, express our thanks for your long and distinguished ministry. In faithfulness to our Lord's calling, your ministry in leading so many people to our Lord has been outstanding. As a brother Christian and as a friend, may I say a simple but nevertheless sincere 'thank you', Billy, for your commitment to Christ which has been such an inspiration to millions - including each one of us here.

"Preaching Christ in a Broken World." I find it ironic and deeply relevant that we are meeting in Amsterdam. Many of you will know that Albert Camus' great novel La Chute (The Fall) is set here in this city. It is an elusive and disturbing book. It opens in a bar in the murky harbour area of Amsterdam, amidst an atmosphere of total despair and hopelessness. The central character, Jean-Baptiste Clemence, a self-described 'judge-penitent', tells the story of the guilt of all humankind - including his own guilt for having witnessed a woman commit suicide in the Seine and not having tried to stop her. One thing Camus was convinced about was the fallenness of humanity, and the book conveys the sense of hopelessness and the helplessness of mankind. Yet, Camus seeks to find some meaning in the midst of these, by stressing the value of morality in the face of the fallibility and fallenness of humanity. But in reality morality brings no peace and no alleviation of the bondage. As Jean-Baptiste Clemence says to his friend: "Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful."

And that is Camus' conclusion. For, the fascinating and tragic thing about Camus' great book is that, accurate though his concept of brokenness is, he has no real answer because for him there is no Saviour, no redeemer, no solution to the weight of guilt and burden of despair.

But Camus is by no means alone in seeing our human condition in that way. And that is why in this address we must give due weight to the two poles of the title of this address. Preaching Christ; Broken World.

So let us look first at our world. A wonderful world, a beautiful world, God's world. No true Christian ever despises the world. We love it; we exalt in it; we cherish it. And we love humanity made in God's image. Fallen, yes - but always loved by Almighty God and therefore loved by us. Always open to new possibilities and always open to redemption and regeneration.

But, alongside all these things, the world is certainly broken. We all know it and even the most sceptical and most irreligious person we shall ever meet knows it. Not for nothing did Sir Isaiah Berlin speak of the "the broken timber of humanity". As a lapsed Jew, he knew that the magnificent capabilities of human nature had been shattered as he surveyed the world around him. Berlin believed the answer to this brokenness to lie in an affirmation of a Gospel of agnostic liberalism because - as he saw it - no one discipline, no one religion, no one truth can possibly convey the whole truth.

Yet, from a Christian perspective, such an analysis is badly flawed, relying as it does on an over-optimistic view of humanity. The brokenness of our world in fact goes far deeper than that.

The passage read just now from Romans 5, speaking as it does of sin, is, at one and the same time, utterly realistic both about the fallenness of the human condition and also about the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

Sin is depicted by St. Paul in three graphic pictures: Sin enslaves, sin kills, sin reigns. The Greek verb, 'basileuo' (meaning, 'to reign') occurs five times in this brief passage. Three times it is used of the reign of sin, and twice of God's people reigning in life through Christ's victory on the cross. The kingdom language depicts a world in which evil triumphs and reigns as a tyrant unless Christ's victory is accepted and known.

And, if we look at the world, we can be in no doubt whatsoever about the destructive might of sin! We look around and we see evil's enslaving, reigning and death-producing power. Well did G. K. Chesterton say famously that of all doctrines "the doctrine of original sin is the only directly observable Christian doctrine."

And literature and film illustrate this time and again. Michael Caine's character, in Woody Allen's film Hannah and her Sisters, commits adultery and knows the guilt caused by that act in letting Hannah down. As a result, he says: "In spite of my learning and abilities, I do not know my own heart."

And yet human nature hides from the light and tries to run away from facing the truth of this analysis. Rather, the reign of sin disguises itself and seeks to shift the centre of attention elsewhere. Thus, while the predicament of human nature is so clearly shown in our powerlessness over wrong-doing and our consequent need for radical transformation in Christ, we seek solutions in things which, though good in themselves, are no substitute for Christ. Indeed, they are false gods. Western culture today is obsessed with three alternative 'Saviours', therapy, education, and wealth among many others - none of which can provide lasting healing for our broken world.

First, Therapy. Our society is fascinated with the healing of the body and mind. Its unspoken assumption is that if we can but keep in tune with the well-being of our inner selves, all will be well. Of course, there is nothing wrong with many therapeutic practices, and Christ was the supreme example of a whole person, at one with Himself. Yet therapy can easily fail to face up to the reality of sin in our lives. And when therapy replaces faith and when therapeutic techniques are seen as the total answer to humanity's deepest needs and longings, another idolatry is introduced.

And that idolatry reveals itself when it replaces the Gospel by focussing solely on satisfying 'my happiness, my needs, and my desires'. Christ the 'Saviour' is then replaced by Christ the 'counsellor'. Listen to many sermons today and this therapeutic approach is uppermost; missing is the appeal to a holy God and his call to us to turn to him in repentance and faith. Missing also is a true appreciation of the depth and reality of sin, and our - and the world's - need for salvation.

Or, second, we look to Education to repair the world's brokenness. Now there is a very proper focus on education in all our societies: education is rightly seen as a major way of bringing communities out of poverty. We agree. In my country, my Church was investing in education long before the State took an interest. Throughout the world today, the Church takes education seriously. But when education is seen as THE answer to mankind's problems, then serious troubles begin. Indeed, one asks: Why is it that, in spite of universal education in first world countries, there is such crime, vandalism and breakdown of family life? Why is it that many terrible atrocities have occurred in advanced societies? Why is it also that education does not meet the loneliness of the human heart and the feelings of guilt? Albert Camus was right: the problems of sin cannot be eradicated for the individual or society by education alone. Once again, as with therapy, when education is seen as an alternative to the Gospel it introduces a different kind of Saviour: an enlightened teacher who can lead us from ignorance to knowledge. The early Church knew all about that - it was called gnosticism, and it was as imperfect then to address the true nature of the human condition as it is today.

But what of that other pseudo-Saviour, Wealth? The American dollar has a laudable adage printed on it: "In God we Trust." Although I did hear an American quote this and add: "But in Citibank we invest!" Now, I don't want to be heard as denying the obvious benefits that riches bring. Without wealth-creation, societies cannot prosper. It is true, of course, as Paul Getty once said: "Money does not bring happiness - but, oh boy, doesn't it keep the children in touch!"

But nor must we underestimate the power of money to corrupt. It is a false god when wealth, riches and possessions become the ultimate aims of life. In Church life, too, we know of its insidious temptations. Think of the number of telly evangelists for whom the lure of money has become an inescapable part of their Gospel! Think of the rise of prosperity Gospels which have lured people to a false faith based on the promise of a good life or money. 'If you believe in Jesus you too will be prosperous and will succeed'. It may sound like good news, but the good news that we preach is good news in which a cross is central. Despite its attractions, wealth cannot solve the problems of humanity. We need a better Saviour.

But the false gods of therapy, education, and wealth are but three of the most powerful defences human nature sets up to avoid the reality of brokenness which the bible calls 'sin' - sin which enslaves, which kills, and which reigns. Paul was right when he described its devastating effects. Humankind is in desperate need of a rescuer.

Yet even in the Church we tend to shy away from that analysis. If we consider our world at the beginning of the 21st century, our western societies seem out of tune with the Christian diagnosis of the human condition. We all admit that no one is perfect, all are weak, that we fall short of our ideals - but we find solutions anywhere other than in Christ. Man has put his trust in man - and has not been disappointed. He trusts in wealth, in health, and believes that through universal education all our problems will be eradicated. And that is a road to nowhere other than loneliness and despair.

Our task, therefore, is to address our world with a true analysis of its problems - and to enable our fellow human beings to discover the true solution to those problems in Christ. To do that effectively, if we are to preach Christ to this broken world, then we need to ask ourselves two further questions:

• What kind of Saviour does our world need?
• What kind of Church can bring this Saviour to our world?

What kind of Saviour does our world need?

It could so easily be deduced that the only Saviour that Christians can bring to our multi-cultural, many-religioned world is our contribution to the marketplace of religions: an understandable Christ, a tolerant and cheerful teacher who does not make too many demands on people. A Christ who merely came to make a "contribution to the religious storehouse of mankind," as Visser't Hooft described such pluralism. Or, the kind of innocuous Saviour of whom the novelist Nabokov described as a "blond, bearded faddist in a towelling robe."

But that is not the Christ depicted in the New Testament! St Paul speaks in Romans 5 in the most outrageous terms of Christ - as the universal Saviour from sin, as God's gift to us all, and the One through whom a new reign has begun The relevance of the Christian Gospel lies not simply in the experience of renewal - other religions offer that, as well - but in the incomparable person of Christ. There must be no apology for preaching what theologian Hans Frei refers to as the "unique, unsubstitutable identity" of Jesus Christ. Churches fail when they cease to speak of the singularity of Christ. There must be no flinching from the 'scandal of particularity' that in this man, at a certain point in human history, God spoke His final word. Indeed, I want to state this in even stronger terms. When Christians and Churches depart from a committed faith in Christ, who was not only an incomparable teacher and visionary leader but the One whom God has raised from the dead and who is Lord and only Saviour, they depart from the throbbing heartbeat of authentic Christian faith - earthed in the New Testament and expressed in our creeds.

That is the Saviour our world needed when He came 2000 years ago - and this is the Saviour it still needs to hear about today. But does it work? Of course it does! Every evangelist and every devoted pastor can tell story after story of God's love in Christ. As Archbishop, I am privileged to witness - often first-hand - the growth of Church life and to receive, from time to time, letters which tell of people's new-found faith and the joy that flows from it. Only last week, for example, I received a letter from a mother narrating how her son, after years of depression and searching for faith, had found it through reading some Christian literature. A few days later, the young man himself wrote with a wonderful story of encounter with the living God. One is humbled by such testimonies of God's love, pointing to the Saviour our world so desperately needs.

But it would be wrong for others to conclude from this emphasis on the particularity of Christ that a fierce commitment to Him leads to a fundamentalist, bigoted, narrow and dogmatic message that we thrust down people's throats! Of course not. The Christ we follow is one who allows people to think, argue, dispute and doubt. Authentic Christian faith is not afraid of scholarship or the critical study of the Scriptures. The true evangelist and the devoted pastor have everything to gain by exploring the questions that haunt us all. We know that lasting benefit comes from listening and wrestling with the difficulties that stop people from believing. A strong faith has deep foundations.

However, there is one thing at least that the radical American Bishop Jack Spong and I can agree about, and that is the need for humility! He writes: "God and God's truth can only be served as we approach the awesome wonder and mystery of God with genuine humility."

And, if we approach God with this humility, we end up inevitably gazing at Christ's face from the foot of the Cross. The words of Max Warren, written some decades ago, still ring true today:

If the cross stands at the centre of history as Christians believe, if it is the central key to understanding the nature of God, the dilemma of man, the mystery of life and death, then we have to expound its meaning as the way in which all men are meant to live and die.

So what kind of Saviour does our world need? I reply, the same kind as it has always done. The One whom the apostles wondered at and the Church has taught down the centuries. The Christ who saves us, liberates us, and reigns in us. Depart from that faith and that Gospel and the Church might as well shut up shop at once - because it will have no Good News to share.

But to speak of that kind of Saviour brings a challenge with it. A challenge to us as individuals, and to our Churches. For, alongside our question of what kind of Saviour our world needs, we also must ask:

What kind of Church can bring such a Saviour to our world?

We meet here in Amsterdam as leaders and as representatives of many Christian Churches. Amsterdam, as well as being the setting of Albert Camus' novel The Fall, was also the place where the first World Council of Churches met in 1948. We have made much ecumenical progress since. Yet there continue to be differences that keep us apart. However, most of us here at this Conference at least are prepared to recognise Christ in one another and to affirm that all Trinitarian Churches are authentic expressions of Christ's body on earth.

And as leaders, how we long to see our Churches transformed into effective bodies reaching out in love, service and witness to the world around! There is a sad truth in the doggerel attributed to an English bishop who on his deathbed said:

Tell my priests when I am gone,
O'er me to shed no tears.
For I shall be no deader then,
Than they have been for years!

Of course, I joke - because in my Church, as in yours, there are many ministers who love God and work night and day for His kingdom. But we know there may be some who do not - some who have lost their vision and are merely going through the motions. They may be trapped: for financial and other reasons they cannot leave but, spiritually exhausted, they remain and have nothing left to offer.

We think, too, of congregations that appear to be stuck and for whom, at best, the routine of church life appears to be the only object of the faith and, at worst, survival is the name of the game.

And it is no surprise that such clergy, and such churches, seem to have little or no success in communicating the Gospel - and what a different tale there is to tell when they do!

So, how can we work in union with the Holy Spirit to revitalise our Churches today?

First we must welcome and accept new ecumenical partnerships based on a common faith. I have been struck during my time as Archbishop that the old differences of churchmanship have a strange irrelevance these days. The real fissures that run through all mainstream churches today are fissures, not of churchmanship, but of belief. Indeed, the real dividing lines have to do with what Saviour we proclaim. For instance: whether or not we truly believe in a God who as revealed Himself as Father, Son and Spirit; whether or not the Christian revelation is for all; whether or not the scriptures are God's timeless revelation of his love; whether or not the same scriptures declare to us God's moral demands about how we should live and conduct ourselves. I find that evangelicals and catholic Christians have so much in common, and it is little wonder that the most interesting ecumenical dialogues are occurring now where we are most deeply-rooted together in an historic faith - in spite of some historic differences.

Now, this is not to say that devout liberalism does not have a place - it certainly does. My tradition has given a welcome place to a godly liberal tradition that accepts the faith of the Church. But there is a radical liberalism denying the truths the Church has borne witness to down the centuries that is an enemy to us all. Such an approach denies or undermines the authority of the scriptures - which for two thousand years has been the common base of historic Christianity. These same scriptures contain the foundational truths of our faith, and we depart from them at our peril. To make human judgement the arbiter of whether or not we accept or reject the moral norms of scripture or the "faith that was once entrusted to the saints" - in the immortal words of Jude 3 - is in my view to cut oneself adrift from authentic Christianity.

Let me repeat, however, that this is not to retreat into a dogmatic, fundamentalist creed. I am all for biblical scholarship and the need to wrestle with intellectual questions. If "Christ is the truth," then His followers have nothing to fear from truth. Nevertheless, our commitment to the authority of scripture as an indispensable and reliable witness to God's will and His definitive revelation in Christ is a fundamental plank in historic Christianity. Let evangelicals, then, seek new partners in the vital struggle to share a common faith with our world. Let us be more open to those Churches and groups whom up to now we have been suspicious of, and even hostile to. Let us display the humility we see in Christ.

Second, we must seek to promote an effective evangelism rooted in the culture of those to whom we speak. Churches die when they lose touch with the communities in which they are situated. So I believe that one of the most important challenges is to seek new ways of understanding what makes our culture tick, what people believe and want most from life, what they fear most, and what they value most.

A recent survey for a television series on faith and religion in Britain, reveals that the majority do not describe themselves as 'religious', but rather as 'spiritual'. That same majority still believes in God and prays. This finding is echoed in a recent report in Le Monde (10th July 2000) that there are not fewer than 170,000 pages on the Internet containing the word 'God' and offering spiritual guidance. Indeed, I find the confession by so many that they are 'spiritual' both interesting and hopeful - because in one sense I, too, am not particularly religious! In spite of what may be believed, I do not spend all my time in churches! There is much in institutional religion that makes me impatient. I am a spiritual person for whom Christianity is a 'way of life'. The core of faith is not a matter of religious practices. It is following a Lord and serving him in my daily life.

Yes, we know that a lot of people are put off by institutional religion. It does not seem to offer a 'way in' to them. Their interests lie in sport, fun, art, theatre, nature, books, good food and drink. Well, there is nothing in that list which is alien to my faith or yours! I do not plead for a religion-less Christianity because that would be misunderstood. But I do plead for an incarnational faith which is in touch with life and which endeavours to understand life and address the questions that people continue to wrestle with. A faith which touches the lives of ordinary people through the witness of what we do as well as what we say.

And here, I believe, is where courses such as Alpha have so much to offer churches around the world. Alpha's great success lies in its ability to take evangelism out of the church into the home, and to bridge the gulf between church and community. It is a course that has revolutionised many churches and made many new Christians. It very happily sits well in the culture of the modern world but can be adapted to a variety of situations.

Nonetheless, while Church life must be rooted on culture, lest it run the risk of irrelevancy, we must never be taken over by being controlled and shaped by that culture. The Gospel challenges structures that are sinful, evil, or wrong, and the Gospel seeks to shape culture according to the values and moral norms of the Christian faith. There are times - and the times may get more and more regular - when the Church will seem 'an alternative community' to the communities around.

My third point is a development of the last one: Effective evangelism is related to the whole of Church life, and we need to foster patterns of Church life that promote that. Evangelicals in the post-war era were accused of not relating faith to life - it has been said that they have been so concerned about preaching Christ that they neglected social and political concerns. It is a sad criticism when you think, for example that in the 19th Century many of the reformers were evangelical. I am glad to observe that this criticism is less common these days because of the way in which evangelical churches are now reaching out into the community. But I believe more could be done. If, as Christ said: "By their fruits you shall know them," then so authentic witness is as much communicated by loving, faithful action as it is by loving, faithful preaching. The word 'relevance' of course has to be used with care, but I firmly believe that if a local church is not relevant to its society in some way - to young people and children through social action and other involvement in society - then it is falling a long way short of what Christ desires from His people.

Fourthly, if we are thinking of ways in which Churches can be effective in proclaiming our Saviour, then I need to touch on worship before I close. Evangelism is the natural response of believers and congregations in love with and on fire for Christ. And this should be so for every one of us here. Even gifted preachers and evangelists and pastors can get worn down by the hardness of ministry and lose their freshness and the ability to communicate with joy and sparkle. Let us all pray that this conference will awaken faith, instil fresh enthusiasm and lead us out into new avenues of service.

And this joy, love and enthusiasm should therefore be reflected naturally in our worship. It should never be said of Church worship that it is 'boring' because Christ was never boring. But alas! Much of worship in all our traditions is boring - it lacks enthusiasm, joy, contemplation, beauty and fun. Those of us who come from Churches where liturgy is central to worship must pay particular attention that liturgy does not become a strait jacket that confines our worship or a framework which imprisons the Holy Spirit. But non-liturgical worship, too, has its own problems, in a different kind of repetition that may lead to a different kind of deadness. After all, a hymn sandwich is not necessarily any more attractive than the format of a Eucharist or Morning Prayer. But where Churches come to life, worship comes to life - and through passionate preaching and the joy and testimony of God's people, others are brought to faith.

"Preaching Christ in a Broken World." We live in uncertain times - but they are also thrilling times to be alive. The Christian faith is as relevant today as it has ever been, and the need for a Saviour is as urgent as ever - perhaps even more so. I am sometimes asked: "When you retire, what kind of Archbishop do you want to be remembered as?" I don't know what kind of answer they expect, but those who ask this question are always surprised when I tell them: "A missionary Archbishop." And the reason for my answer is this: the first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine, was a missionary. He came to the Kentish shores in 597AD. He was, it has to be said, a pretty reluctant missionary, but as an obedient monk he came, stayed, prayed - and saw God's ministry expand. As the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury, I find that inspiring, and in my ministry I have endeavoured to keep this tradition of evangelising alive in all I do. But there was one moment in Augustine's ministry when the burden of the undertaken almost made him despair and run away from his task. But the remarkable Pope Gregory the Great wrote to him these words:

Since it had been better not to have begun what is good than to return back from it when begun, you must, most beloved sons, fulfil the good work which, with the help of the Lord, you have begun. Let, then, neither the toil of the journey nor the tongues of evil-speaking men deter you; but with all instancy and all fervour go on with what under God's guidance you have commenced, knowing that great toil is followed by the glory of an eternal reward.

Perhaps that is a message to us all tonight. God has called you, named you, and blessed you. Now it is our exhilarating task to be faithful to him - and share him with others.