1.   Arabs and Israelis and other cultures will be plodding on in prosaically numbered years when the Christian third millennium arrives.

2.   But, the Jewish state finds itself playing the ambivalent host to the Christian millennium.

3.   The whole church is preparing for the third Christian millennium.

4.   Whether it spells urban catastrophe or golden opportunity, Rome is cranking itself up to celebrate the dawn of a third Christian millennium.

5.   At the same time, he has declared Christian unity one of the major goals of his papacy as the third Christian millennium approaches.

6.   We speak of the second Christian millennium as one of a divided church.

7.   But celebration of the Catholic martyrs makes ecumenical dialogue that much harder as the divided churches try to enter the third Christian millennium in restored unity.