Week of Prayer for Chrisitan Unity

January 18 – January 25

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The theme for the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010 was announced by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission of Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches. This year’s theme comes from the words of Our Lord spoken to the Apostles after His resurrection, “You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:48) In this gospel text Jesus resurrected appears to the disciples and calls for them to preach “repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,….preached in his name to all nations. (Luke24:27)

As followers of Jesus, this message remains with us today. We are also witnesses to the Church Jesus founded. We are called to continue to pray not just one week a year but daily the prayer of Jesus to His Father, in the garden of Gethsemane, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And  I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one.” ( John 17:20-23) In a world, conservatively speaking, with over 20,000 Christian denominations, Jesus’ words give one something to ponder.