What shapes Jewish identity? In the end, Jesus –not only the author and perfector of our faith, but the author and perfecter of all our identities. Whilst our people continue as pilgrims through the realms of time and space, and the realities of history, politics and religion, the only ultimate source of identity formation and definition is not the ever changing social construct or the non-negotiable metaphysical essence of Jewishness, but the dynamic encounter and transforming relationship that can only be had through the Messiah of Israel, and leaves Jewish identity incomplete until the Messiah is recognised. The real issue then, is not the question of what shapes Jewish identity, despite all its complexity and the many ways it can be assessed, but the even harder question which some of us here have only just begun to discover the answer to, but must be relevantly, clearly and sensitively communicated to our people, and that is "Who is Jesus?" How do we recognise his true identity, and what does he mean today, to Jew and Gentile alike? May it not be long Õtil he returns.