Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan 18-25

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Tis_Bearself

Patron
Does anyone’s parish actually do anything for this Week of Prayer?

I got interested in it because (a) it’s on the Catholic Culture website calendar, (b) it’s in the Manual of Indulgences – you can get a plenary if you participate in some prayers during the week and attend a closing service, and (c) I was learning about Servant of God Fr. Paul of Graymoor, the founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, who started the whole concept.


I also notice most parishes will put a blurb in the bulletin during the week of prayer, or maybe just an ad saying it’s the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with nothing more.

I couldn’t even find anything on the Cathedral website showing that they were doing anything. Meanwhile, Protestant churches seem to be much more interested in the week of prayer.

I found maybe one place down in Delaware maybe having a service on Jan 25, I suspect that’s only because Fr. Paul was from there and they want to promote his cause.

I’m kind of confused as to why Catholic churches seem to be ignoring this week of prayer when the USCCB even put out materials for it.

Should I just go find some Protestants and pray with them at their church?
 
Last edited:
I mean, I guess I pray people convert to the catholic faith so same right?
 
Well, yeah, that would be my hope too. We’re certainly not going to convert over to Episcopalian or Lutheran.

Fr. Paul actually started out as an Episcopalian and converted. I would guess if he’s a Servant of God now he was kind of hoping the same for others.
 
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

This is the international version of the text of the Week of Prayer 2019

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/p...hrstuni_doc_20180621_week-prayer-2019_en.html

doc/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20180621_week-prayer-2019_en.html

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland .

ctbi.org.uk

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2021

ctbi.org.uk ctbi.org.uk

https://ctbi.org.uk/week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-resources

 
Last edited:
Yes, so I guess, I too, pray that all Christians would be united under the Pope.
 
The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity has been answered in abundance during my lifetime .

The attitude of Christians from different traditions towards each other has ceased to be one of suspicion and ignorance .

When Queen Elizabeth was crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey in 1953 the papal nuncio took his place in a booth outside the Abbey . He could not enter a non-Catholic church and participate in a non-Catholic ceremony . Though Britain’s most senior Catholic layman , Duke of Norfolk, premier peer of the realm and hereditary earl marshal of England , organised the coronation , as he had done for the Queen’s father .

A few years forward we have Pope John Paul II going on pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral accompanied by Archbishop Runcie , Archbishop of Canterbury .

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Yes, how things have changed in recent decades .

Back to Westminster Abbey now in 2010 , and we have Pope Benedict accompanied by Archbishop Rowan Williams , Archbishop of Canterbury , in the Abbey for Evening Prayer .

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Whilst in the Abbey they prayed before the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor .

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
I’m happy that your area does a lot for the Week of Christian Unity. I do think our best hope for unification is with the Church of England (not so much the US Episcopal church because of all the female clergy and now gay clergy also). Also glad people are not looking at each other badly. Servant of God Fr. Paul of Graymoor started out as Anglican (father from England) and converted, so it’s a natural fit.

In the areas of US where I spend time, I also don’t see much animosity between faiths. Most animosity in US would be coming from evangelicals, and they aren’t heavily present in my parts of the country. The mainline Protestant churches and the Catholic church tend to get along quite well, although I am not seeing re-unification happening any time soon here. But it doesn’t seem like Catholic churches emphasize Week of Prayer for Christian Unity either. I wonder if it’s because doing so would suggest we want the Protestants to rejoin the Church and that would be a touchy subject.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I wonder if it’s because doing so would suggest we want the Protestants to rejoin the Church and that would be a touchy subject.
Click to expand...
I no longer see prayer for Christian Unity as a prayer for one , undivided Church , which would be the ultimate goal .

I see it as prayer for better understanding between Christians , for working together on issues which are done better together , and for just an opportunity to pray together .

Just down the road from me is St Paul’s Anglican church . A few years back our church was having major work done on the building and was not suitable for use for a while . The Anglicans at St Paul’s offered the use of their church for Sundays . An offer gratefully taken up .

In a neighbouring town there is a purpose-built joint Methodist and Catholic church .

These two things would have been unheard of in the days of my childhood .
 
Last edited:
We have a proactive Churches Together in our town, ministers and groups meet monthly, we pray together and amazing things happen. We do projects together that would probably be too big for any one church. We have opened up a food bank, started up and run two homeless shelters, Street Pastors, addiction courses, action against poverty, and much more.

Although we come under the umbrella of Churches Together, we are starting to call ourselves ‘The Church’. The Catholics are still a little on the outside, but the unity service this year will be in our Catholic Church. It is hard to ignore what the other churches are striving for.

I look on the future with hope. A few miles from where I live, there have been major battles between Catholic and Protestants in the past, fifty years ago we might have been calling each other heretics, and now we can pray together.

The Bible hasn’t changed, but we are changing,
 
I know some years ago when Washington, DC had an earthquake, the National Cathedral, which is Episcopalian, suffered severe structural damage. The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which was undamaged, offered their space for the National Cathedral to use until it was fixed.

I think it’s pretty easy for Catholics to share space with Anglican/ Episcopal and maybe Lutheran. Beyond that it gets iffy unless you make two separate worship spaces in the building. I saw one “interfaith center” some years ago that had Catholic, Jewish and some Protestant faiths all sharing the same building except in different rooms. It was incredibly ugly and didn’t feel Catholic, but I think that was more due to the awful brutalist design of the space (just a big room with no windows, portable chairs and awful 70s felt banners) than the fact that we were sharing with other faiths. I did wonder if the other faiths were the reason the church had no statues or was that just due to the preference of the worship space designer, either way it was unpleasant and I was glad to move to an area with a real Catholic church.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top