by Doug Yonson, Ottawa Citizen Ottawa-area churches will be emphasizing local activities to mark the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 18-25. In other years, at least one region-wide activity has been held during the ecumenical week. But Peter Schonenbach, president of the Christian Council of the Capital Area, said that this year … Read more »… À suivre »
by Rev. R. G. MacNeil, for the Ottawa Citizen “Christ, Our Reconciliation,” is the theme of the week of prayer for Christian unity to be held this year from Jan. 18 to 25. The observance was initiated 79 years ago by the Rev. Paul Wattson, an Anglican priest in the United States, who called for … Read more »… À suivre »
by James D. Davis, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel The night before he died, Jesus prayed a strange, earnest prayer for his disciples — “that they may all be one, even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee … that the world may believe that Thou didst send me.” The prayer was strange … Read more »… À suivre »
Western Report 8.2 (Feb 8, 1993): 41. The shattering of Christendom into contending denominations in the 16th century ranks as one of the critical moments of world history, second perhaps only to the original conversion of the Roman Empire 13 centuries earlier. Historical explanations of these divisions abound. Yet the fact remains: Christendom was just … Read more »… À suivre »
by Cameron Hoffman, Regina Leader Post Ken Cyr, pastor of Fort Qu’Appelle’s Valley Alliance Church, and his congregation will spend next week in churches other than their own, praying in the same pews as Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics and United Church members, worshiping as a unified faith community. Christians in Fort Qu’Appelle will participate in the … Read more »… À suivre »
It seems a far cry now from the mid-1950s when Roman Catholic ecumenism was in the main led by the Abbé Paul Couturier and other French pioneers, though a church historian could look further back to the Malines Conversations in Belgium between Catholics and Anglicans, and to the work of the Sword of the Spirit during the Second World War, when Cardinal Hinsley co- operated with William Temple, by then Archbishop of Canterbury. I well remember being involved with Oxford’s Catholics in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in its refashioned form — praying for the unity Christ willed for his Church by the means he chose. With some trepidation some of us ecumenical cognoscenti went to St Aloysius’ in St Giles, where we were invited to take part in Benediction. Well, there was no harm in entering in at the deep end, was there? … Read more »… À suivre »
Depuis plus de dix ans, les Églises en Slovaquie connaissent une période de renouveau et de développement, après avoir vécu, pendant une quarantaine d’années, dans une situation politique qui, tout en leur permettant d’exister, empêchait leur épanouissement et limitait leur témoignage dans la société. Ce thème : « Le Christ, unique fondement de l’Église », a été élaboré … Read more »… À suivre »
The churches in Slovakia have experienced more than a decade of renewal and growth after four decades of living in a political situation that, while allowing the churches to exist, attempted to impede their growth and limit their witness in society. The situation in which this year’s theme: “Christ, the one Foundation of the Church” … Read more »… À suivre »
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated worldwide from January 18 to 25 each year. In Canada the observance is slightly modified to span the week during which January 25 falls. This allows for two Sundays to observe the week. In Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) where I live, we have a long tradition of early … Read more »… À suivre »
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matt. 18:20). The 2006 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be observed January 22 to 29, 2006 in many parts of Canada. An international resource kit prepared by the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian … Read more »… À suivre »
The International Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and Reconciliation, an annual event in Saskatoon since 1987, draws its theme Jan. 21-28 from Mark 7:37: “He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” It is a theme that resonates with Rev. Jan Bigland-Pritchard, director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism which … Read more »… À suivre »
When Pope Benedict XVI was elected to replace the inimitable Pope John Paul II, he promised to carry on his beloved successor’s work, particularly that related to ecumenism. As is often the case, the press of events can overtake the best laid plans and so ecumenism has often appeared to play second fiddle to other issues.
Yet it remains deeply and ineradicably imbedded in the church’s teaching, thanks to the Second Vatican Council and the post-council popes.
As we celebrate the 2007 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 21-28), we would do well to recall some initiatives of the last year that did not produce the kind of documents we usually associate with ecumenical dialogue, but represent progress in a way that cannot be summed up in precise theological language. … Read more »… À suivre »
The CCC need back copies of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity services, and stories about celebrations before 1948. Please search your shelves, cupboards, attics, offices, for existing copies you might have. With your help, we can put together a complete collection. We will be producing an anthology of prayer services to help celebrate the centenary of the Octave of Christian Unity in 2008. … Read more »… À suivre »
Anyone who thought a look back at 20th-century history through the eyes of prayer would be comforting, uplifting or anodyne might want to begin with the 1919 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Organizers of this early version of the annual week of prayer pulled no punches when they began, “The crowning horror and blasphemy of our divisions is that we shut one another out from the one great Sacrament of Love.” … Read more »… À suivre »
A hundred years on from the establishing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, how much further forward are we? And what exactly are we praying for during this week of prayer? On the whole, it’s become a fixture for most “mainstream” denominations, a few days when the more enthusiastic or more biddable members of the congregation turn up to someone else’s church for a well-mannered but often rather lukewarm joint service or two, or perhaps for a talk by a prominent local leader.
The aspiration that we end up relating better with each other, or even that we end up more willing to engage in witness and work together is entirely worthy, and is probably widely fulfilled. But are we praying for anything more than this?
For some people, the answer is clearly “no”. To look beyond this fostering of local goodwill, they would say, is always in danger of slipping towards the yearning for some universal institution with clear central control – at worst, a Pullmanesque Magisterium, some people’s nightmare of Roman Catholicism. … Read more »… À suivre »
2008 is the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the United States. In 1908, the Rev. Paul Wattson, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, suggested that the period between January 18 and 25 be an octave of prayer for Christian unity. In this proposal, he was giving form to Pope Leo XIII’s 1894 call for an octave of prayer, and to earlier suggestions from the Lambeth Conference and various other leaders. Wattson and the Friars observed the octave at Graymoor beginning in 1908, and championed the octave throughout the United States. In France, efforts to establish the octave in France were led by Fr. Paul Couturier beginning in the late 1920s. Further details can be found in our “A brief history of the Week of Prayer” written by Nicholas Jesson.
2008 offers an opportunity to look back at our efforts at Christian unity and to recognize the central importance of prayer together in Jesus’ name. A new website for the 100th anniversary observances has been established at the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. … Read more »… À suivre »
“Pray without ceasing” is the theme of the 2008 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Celebrated in Canada from January 20 to 27th, this year the theme is drawn from the St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians (I Th. 5:17). Paul’s encouragement to pray without ceasing is particularly apt for this year’s Week of Prayer which commemorates the 100th anniversary of this annual observance.
The materials from the 2008 WPCU international resource package are available for download in PDF format. Adapt these materials in your own settings, and print the worship service freely in your own church bulletins.
Worship services and other events are scheduled across Canada and around the world. Events are listed on this website for Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Victoria, and Winnipeg. If you would like us to list your WPCU event in Canada, please email the webeditor. … Read more »… À suivre »
If you pray for something for 100 years you might find the prayer refines itself in the light of new realities, and then perhaps the prayer itself deepens your understanding and broadens your horizon. For 100 years Christians have been formally setting aside seven or eight days in January to pray with Christ for unity. “It’s really about being on our knees together and praying for the unity that is willed by God, in the way God wants, when God wants,” [Marianist] Father Luis Melo told The Catholic Register.
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After 100 years of acknowledging Jesus’ last will and testament in prayer, the theme for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is “Pray Without Ceasing.” “We’ve come to a new level of maturity in terms of ecumenical activity,” said Atonement Friar Father Damian MacPherson, ecumenical and interfaith affairs officer for the archdiocese of Toronto. “Perhaps that’s why it’s becoming more difficult.”
Glib talk of an easy and obvious unity among Christians may have been common in the first decade or more after the Second Vatican Council, but as churches make substantial progress — the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Lutheran World Federation and the 1965 rescinding of the excommunications of 1054 between Orthodox and Catholic Churches — ecumenists begin to see how long the road to unity might be. “We cannot be looking for giant steps. It’s painfully slow, painfully slow,” said MacPherson. “Patience is the hallmark of the good ecumenist.” … Read more »… À suivre »
This year marks the 100th anniversary of International Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in North America, and the 20th anniversary of the event in Saskatoon. Sister Juliana Heisler, director of parish life at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, has witnessed a steady increase in interest over the past two decades. “Services of prayer … Read more »… À suivre »
Read the 2015 joint statement of the Evangelical-Roman Catholic dialogue in Saskatoon, Called to Common Witness
Catholic Women in Ministry
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