Will your church participate in a service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity?

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January 17/18 - 24, 2010 is the Octave/Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is a question to anyone - Protestant or Catholic. This just seemed like a good place for it. Does your church participate in an area ministerium that will have an ecumenical service during this week? If so, how many different churches will participate? Is this a celebration you are familiar with? There are many websites with information.

Here is one: kandle.ie/2010/01/12/christian-unity-week-2010/
 
LindaSK said:
January 17/18 - 24, 2010 is the Octave/Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is a question to anyone - Protestant or Catholic. This just seemed like a good place for it. Does your church participate in an area ministerium that will have an ecumenical service during this week? If so, how many different churches will participate? Is this a celebration you are familiar with? There are many websites with information.

Here is one: kandle.ie/2010/01/12/christian-unity-week-2010/
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There will most likely be at least one service in the Diocese, with Presbyterians, Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and United Church people leading the prayers. I haven’t heard of anything specifically going on at any of the parishes that I have personal dealings with. 🙂
 
LindaSK said:
January 17/18 - 24, 2010 is the Octave/Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is a question to anyone - Protestant or Catholic. This just seemed like a good place for it. Does your church participate in an area ministerium that will have an ecumenical service during this week? If so, how many different churches will participate? Is this a celebration you are familiar with? There are many websites with information.

Here is one: kandle.ie/2010/01/12/christian-unity-week-2010/
Click to expand...
My church is non-denom. I didn’t know about this until I saw your thread. We aren’t doing anything with it.

I guess it’s not really an issue for us because the main premise of being non-denominational is that unity in Christ is all-important and unity within a particular denomination is completely unnecessary. It’s totally fine if you do it, but you don’t have to.

Additionally, my church is relatively non-ecumenical, at least on paper. The senior pastor in particular and the leadership in general is a lot more so, but it’s not like ND churches have a bunch of fractures that need to be healed. I tend to think of these kinds of things as a series of visits to the doctor to get a cast put on a broken limb followed by trips to the community therapist in order to resolve points of conflict. ND churches don’t have these same kinds of issues to work through. Who exactly is it that we would have to work things through with? I can’t think of anyone. There’s far less motivation to repair our relationships with other groups of Christians because there’s not really anything to repair.

There’s also something to the idea that the non-denominational ideal is about as far removed from the inter-denominational ideal as you can get. So my church isn’t really concerning itself with this week of prayer for Christian unity. We have other stuff going on, and a lot of what motivates one group or another to do this kind of thing just isn’t applicable in a ND church.
 
mmmcounts said:
My church is non-denom. I didn’t know about this until I saw your thread. We aren’t doing anything with it.

I guess it’s not really an issue for us because the main premise of being non-denominational is that unity in Christ is all-important and unity within a particular denomination is completely unnecessary. It’s totally fine if you do it, but you don’t have to.

Additionally, my church is relatively non-ecumenical, at least on paper. The senior pastor in particular and the leadership in general is a lot more so, but it’s not like ND churches have a bunch of fractures that need to be healed. I tend to think of these kinds of things as a series of visits to the doctor to get a cast put on a broken limb followed by trips to the community therapist in order to resolve points of conflict. ND churches don’t have these same kinds of issues to work through. Who exactly is it that we would have to work things through with? I can’t think of anyone. **There’s far less motivation to repair our relationships with other groups of Christians because there’s not really anything to repair.

There’s also something to the idea that the non-denominational ideal is about as far removed from the inter-denominational ideal as you can get**. So my church isn’t really concerning itself with this week of prayer for Christian unity. We have other stuff going on, and a lot of what motivates one group or another to do this kind of thing just isn’t applicable in a ND church.
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I’m not sure I get your point. This is a prayer service that has nothing to do with repairing relationships. It is not an attempt to convert in any direction. It is a time to come together as one community to pray together for the dignity of all life, for peace, for our families, our communities, our country, our world. We shop together, bank together, bowl together. After 9/11, we cried together. Why not pray together?

Three years ago, the service was held at our Catholic church. Two of the churches participating were different non-denominational churches. We had Quakers! 8 different affiliations were represented. It was awesome! A reminder of the concerns that we share.
 
Well, everything begins with prayer…we really need to…It is on our calendar…not too far away now…may be find some Protestant friends and we pray together…even if we live some miles away.
 
LindaSK said:
January 17/18 - 24, 2010 is the Octave/Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is a question to anyone - Protestant or Catholic. This just seemed like a good place for it. Does your church participate in an area ministerium that will have an ecumenical service during this week? If so, how many different churches will participate? Is this a celebration you are familiar with? There are many websites with information.

Here is one: kandle.ie/2010/01/12/christian-unity-week-2010/
Click to expand...
Yes we are. We were just talking about it tonight and there will be several involved. Exact number I can’t seem to recall.
 
A deacon told us in class that the first level of theology is to study it prayerfully. The second level is when we do so intellectually, academically.

So if Christians can put differences aside and come together in prayer – Our Father, praying the Psalms and mutual prayer intentions, – and then from the prayer intentions work and help each other from prayer…I think much restoration can be done…

The Word Made Flesh…
 
KathleenGee said:
A deacon told us in class that the first level of theology is to study it prayerfully. The second level is when we do so intellectually, academically.

So if Christians can put differences aside and come together in prayer – Our Father, praying the Psalms and mutual prayer intentions, – and then from the prayer intentions work and help each other from prayer…I think much restoration can be done…

The Word Made Flesh…
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
 
KathleenGee said:
Well, everything begins with prayer…we really need to…It is on our calendar…not too far away now…may be find some Protestant friends and we pray together…even if we live some miles away.
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If church traditions are checked at the door and the service revolves around the gospel of Jesus, I’m fine. However I cannot pray with someone who doesn’t pray in Christ’s name or is preaching a different gospel than that of Christ. I’ll pray for them.
 
shawn38 said:
If church traditions are checked at the door and the service revolves around the gospel of Jesus, I’m fine. However I cannot pray with someone who doesn’t pray in Christ’s name or is preaching a different gospel than that of Christ. I’ll pray for them.
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It is a beautiful, Christ-centered service. Pastors from different affiliations give messages based on scripture.As I said in an earlier post, we offer many prayers, including ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’ The hymns come from the hymnal/Missal of the church holding the service. Two that are commonly used are ‘They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love’ and ‘In Christ There is No East or West.’ We have also used ‘How Great Thou Art’ and ‘There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.’

“The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is now celebrated around the world in January. Since 1968, the theme and focus biblical texts have been prepared by a joint committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.” ecumenism.net/wpcu/
 
rev_kevin said:
Yes we are. We were just talking about it tonight and there will be several involved. Exact number I can’t seem to recall.
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Last year’s service was at a Methodist church. Two years ago, it was at the Baptist church. We also have an Episcopal church that participates.
 
rev_kevin said:
Yes we are. We were just talking about it tonight and there will be several involved. Exact number I can’t seem to recall.
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Guess I should have asked my question! Do you find there is cooperation between Catholic and Protestant churches in your area for services like this? Or just between various Protestant denominations? Or, as pastors get transferred, do participating churches change?
 
LindaSK said:
Guess I should have asked my question! Do you find there is cooperation between Catholic and Protestant churches in your area for services like this? Or just between various Protestant denominations? Or, as pastors get transferred, do participating churches change?
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As far as the Catholic church where I live I’m sad to say we only have one and I can’t say if it does or not but I have not seen them when I go.
I think its safe to say that its between other denominations. As far as pastors getting transferred some do continue and some don’t continue. As for the church I belong to we only had 2 pastors since the doors opened, the first one is retired now but still attends and the second one has been there for 27 plus years.
 
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