Christians around the world are preparing to join in the World Council of Churches’ Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which kicks off on Thursday.
Running until 25th January, the theme of the week – “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power” – is inspired by Exodus 15:6: “Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy”. (NIV)
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, said praying for Christian unity means that, despite divisions, “we already experience the fellowship of the baptised”. “[I]t means that we pray for them and they pray for us across our differences,” he said. “As churches pray for each other and pray together for others and for justice and peace, the Holy Spirit equips them to fulfil their common calling and grow into a living fellowship.”
Rev Dr Odair Pedroso Mateus, the WCC director of faith and order, commented that visible division among Christian churches is a sin.
“Is Christ divided?” he asked. “Sin calls for repentance, confession, conversion. The way from visible division to visible unity is therefore inseparable from prayer.”
Resources for the week have been prepared by various churches in the Caribbean.
“This year, Christians from the Caribbean, who have experienced enslavement, oppression, marginalisation, invite us to pray for unity and celebrate freedom with Moses and his half-sister Miriam,” noted Rev Dr Mateus.
The week is traditionally held between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul, although some churches, particularly those based in the southern hemisphere where many are on holidays during that period, mark it at other times.
The text for the week is jointly published by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the WCC, through the WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order.
