“My peace I give to you”
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The week of prayer for Christian Unity 18th – 25th January |
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Annually the world wide Christian church observes these 8 days in January as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity “This week of prayer was first proposed by Father Paul Wattson in 1907-8. He proposed this particular week as an ‘octave (eight days) of prayer for the reunion of Christendom from the feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome to that of the Conversion of St. Paul’. For Paul Wattson reunion with Rome was the particular object of the prayers.
In
the early 1930’s the idea of working and praying for Christian unity
was taken by the Abbe Couturier of Lyon. He accepted the basic idea
of Paul Wattson but believed that it needed to be broadened. He
insisted: ‘We must pray not that others may be converted to us but
that we may all be drawn closer to Christ.’ In 1936 the ‘Octave of
Prayer’ was relaunched as “The Week of Universal Prayer of
Christians for Christian Unity”. He stressed that it must be the
prayer for the ‘Unity Christ wills by the means he wills’.” Many of us have taken part in these Weeks of Prayer for Christen Unity for the whole of our adult lives and the inevitable questions arises - What good do they do? Where is the unity we have prayed for? Judging from the evidence of disunity among Christians, even within churches and denominations, we can go on to ask: Does God not hear our prayers? If the answer is “yes!” then maybe we are not listening to what God is asking of us! True, in many parts of the Christian church denominations are cooperating and working together in exciting and inspirational ways. Many of these examples of ‘ecumenism’ are practical projects in needy communities while others are ecumenical partnerships where Christians of three or four denominations actually worship and work together as one congregation. But examples are few and far between. It has to be admitted that much Christian growing and working together is merely an attempt at self preservation, often being ‘thrown’ together by circumstance, as numbers in local congregations fall and the maintenance of unrealistic buildings becomes a burden. Other denominational bodies continue to maintain a hard disciplined line about ‘membership’ causing hurt and offence to other Christian brothers and sisters. Outsiders look in askance as the church continues to divide and split and tear itself apart often through petty squabbles and trivial differences. Surely this is not how Jesus meant it to be. St Paul makes quite clear the unity to which Jesus calls us. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”(Ephesians 4: 3 – 6) Of course we are all different and I believe diversity is a God given element of the wonder and glory of his creation. Part of the pain of Christian disunity is precisely when our manmade church structures, where we invest so much time energy and limited resources, come under strain and stress. These are perhaps not the areas where God has equipped us to work but we fail to listen to his voice. Without being too complacent I venture to claim that St .Christopher’s compound IS an example of the way in which Christians can worship together either separately but under one roof or together as one congregation. We have excellent examples of both without having huge inadequately used buildings which are a scandal. For this year’s Week of Prayer we are invited to reflect on the words of Jesus in John 14:27 ‘My peace I give to you.’ We have the opportunity to gather with Christians of other traditions at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Saturday 17th January at 7.30 p.m. The Very Revd. Alan Hayday
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