Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is annually coordinated by the

In 1960 Pope John XXIII removed from the General Roman Calendar the January 18th feast of the Chair of Peter, along with seven other feast days that were second feasts of a single saint or mystery and merged it with the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, kept on February 22. This calendar was incorporated in the 1962 Roman Missal. Hence, only those Catholics who still retain the General Roman Calendar of 1954 keep the January 18th Feast, although the date continued to serve as the beginning for the Unity Octave. The Feast of the Confession of Peter continues to be observed by Anglican churches on January 18. ^[3]

Pope

Protestant leaders in the mid-1920s also proposed an annual octave of prayer for unity amongst Christians, leading up to Pentecost Sunday (the traditional commemoration of the establishment of the Church).^[5]

Evolution

Abbé Paul Couturier of Lyons, France, who has been called "the father of spiritual ecumenism",^[6] had a slightly different approach from that of Father Wattson, a convert to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism. He advocated prayer "for the unity of the Church as Christ wills it, and in accordance with the means he wills", thereby enabling other Christians with differing views of the Petrine ministry to join in the prayer. In 1935, he proposed naming the observance "Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity", a proposal accepted by the Catholic Church in 1966. Father Couturier's message influenced a Sardinian nun, Blessed Sister Maria Gabriella of Unity, whose deep, prayerful, sacrificial devotion to the cause of unity is held up by Rome as an example to be followed.^[7]

In 1941, the Faith and Order Conference changed the date for observing the week of unity prayer to that observed by Catholics. In 1948, with the founding of the World Council of Churches, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity became increasingly recognised by different churches throughout the world.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, the French Catholic group Unité Chrétienne and the

In the Southern Hemisphere, where January is a vacation time, churches often find other days to celebrate the week of prayer, for example around Pentecost (as originally suggested by the Faith and Order movement in 1926,^[8] and Pope Leo XIII in 1894),^[5] which is also a symbolic date for the unity of the church.^{[citation needed]}

The 2008 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was celebrated as the centennial. For the 2012 Week, the biblical text 1

The 2016 Week was provided by the Churches of Latvia and the theme was that all Christians are 'Called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord'.[10]^{[failed verification]}

The theme for the week of prayer in 2019, "Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue ..." was inspired by Deuteronomy 16:18-20. ^[11]

The 2024 week of prayer draws together churches across the globe under the theme "You shall love the Lord your God ... and your neighbour as yourself" (Luke 10:27) with materials prepared by an ecumenical team from Burkina Faso, facilitated by the local Chemin Neuf Community (CCN).

See also

• Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
• Schism (religion)
• World Council of Churches

References