One Choir

I pray that they all may be one, father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. John 17:21

For all we Irish, inhabitants of the world’s edge, are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and of all the disciples who wrote the sacred canon (of the New Testament) by the Holy Spirit. We accept nothing outside the evangelical and apostolic teaching. None of us was a heretic … no one a schismatic; but the Catholic Faith, as it was first transmitted by you, successors of the holy apostles, is maintained unbroken … For among us it is not who you are but how you make your case that counts. Love for the peace of the Gospel forces me to tell all in order to shame both of you who ought to have been one choir. Another reason is my great concern for your harmony and peace. ‘For if one member suffers all the members suffer with it’ …

Therefore, my dearest friends, come to an agreement quickly … I can’t understand how a Christian can quarrel with a Christian about the Faith. Whatever an Orthodox Christian who rightly glorifies the Lord will say, the other will answer Amen, because he also loves and believes alike. ‘Let you all therefore say and think the one thing’ so that both sides ‘may be one’ – all Christians.

Jesus has gathered us, is gathering us, and will gather us out of all regions, till he should make resurrection of our hearts from the earth, and teach us that we are all of one substance, and members of one another.
Columbanus’ letter to Pope Boniface 1V in 613, at a time when there were two power-hungry rivals for the ‘Chair of Peter’.

Thrice Holy God, eternal Three-in-One
Make your people holy, make your people one.
Stir up in us the flame that burns out pride and power
Restore in us the love that brings the servant heart to flower.
Thrice holy God, come as the morning dew;
Inflame in us your love
Which draws all lesser loves to you.