“We saw his star in the East, and have come to worship Him” (Mt 2: 1-2)

 
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated worldwide from 18th to 25th January, though in some countries in the Southern Hemisphere it is celebrated at Pentecost.

How the Week of Prayer began

The Week of prayer traces its roots back to the 18th century when in 1740 in Scotland a Pentecostal movement arose, with North American links who prayed for and with all Churches.

In the 19th century the First Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops worldwide spoke of prayer for unity while in 1894 Pope Leo XIII encouraged the practice of a Prayer Octave for Unity in the context of Pentecost.

In 1908 in America Rev. Paul Wattson started the observance of the “Church Unity Octave”. It was in 1935 that a Catholic priest Abbé Paul Couturier from France initiated the “Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” for “the unity Christ wills by the means he wills”.

 

Ecumenical collaboration

After Vatican II in 1966 the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity began official joint preparation of the Week of Prayer material publishing in 1968 the first official resource booklet.

From 1975 onwards the material for the Week of Prayer began to evolve from a draft text prepared by a local ecumenical group and from 2004 the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity jointly published in the same format the resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity based on the input from a specific country or group. On the international commission there is a member from Ireland, Rev. Martin Browne OSB from Glenstal Abbey.

Ecumenical groups in Ireland have contributed to the preparations of three “Weeks of Prayer” in 1983, 1994 and 2006 when the theme was “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them (Matthew 18:18-20).

Brazilian presbyterian Rev. Dr Pedroso Mateus current director of Faith and Order in a recent interview about the Week replying to the question “While the roots of the Week of Prayer go back more than 100 years, what fresh new aspects have you observed taking root over the last few years?” stated “Concerning ‘new aspects’, one notices, in recent years, that local ecumenical groups attach a lot of importance to praying together primarily in response to local concrete situations. This may mean that for them the notion of Christian unity makes more sense in relation to mission and witness together rather than in relation to the need to overcome together past inherited divisions”.

 

This year’s theme is from the Middle East

This year it was the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), based in Beirut, Lebanon, who convened the drafting group. The MECC has 27 member churches in 12 countries, representing 14 million Christians. The theme they chose is “We saw his star in the East, and we came to worship him” (Mt 2: 1 -2) which obviously indicates the focus from Churches in the Holy Land and evokes the experience of the Three Kings, or Magi.

 

Daily reflections

During the Week, Christians are invited to reflect each day on a specific theme, as part of the overall theme. Follow the links below for suggestions about readings, prayers, and reflexions in English and Irish.

 

18th January: “We observed His star in the East”

 

19th January “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?”

 

20th January “When king Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him”.

 

21st January “And you, Bethlehem… are by no means least”.

 

22nd January “Ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising”.

 

23rd January “They saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid Him homage”.

 

24th January “Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh”.

 

25th January “They left for their own country by another road”.

 

For Focolare’s “Word of Life” for the month of January it has been a tradition for many years to use the phrase taken for the Week of Prayer.

 

In Ireland there are a number of services and events around the Week of Prayer. Just to mention a few. 

The monthly Ecumenical Lunchtime Prayer, which is held online and in presence in St Finian’s Lutheran Church in Dublin, will open the Week with a Service from 1pm to 1.30pm on the 18th January. For those wanting to join contact Pastor Martin Sauter sautermartin35@gmail.com for the zoom link.

There are also two Dublin Council of Churches events organised services for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:

Sunday, 16th January, 11am RTE ONE TV, Ecumenical Service in preparation for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This service was organized by members of the Dublin Council of Churches and will be live broadcast.

Tuesday, 18th January, 8pm, St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Parish Church, Clontarf, off St. Lawrence Road, Dublin 3, Opening Service for the Week of Prayer. Archbishop Dermot Farrell will be the host, and Presbyterian pastor the Very Rev. Dr Trevor Morrow will be preaching, and Dublin Church Leaders will be in attendance. The Service will be live streamed via the Parish Website: https://stanthonysclontarf.ie

Sunday 6th February at 7pm in St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast, takes place the final event of the 4 Corners Festival entitled “Come and Live on Common Ground”, with special guest the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

The 4 Corners Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary, was triggered by a friendship between a Presbyterian minister and a Catholic priest in Belfast. To access the programme and to book online and presence at the events click https://4cornersfestival.com