Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

I would like to invite you all to our annual prayer service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The prayer service will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Catholic Church of St. Mary, 2001 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill. Bishop Dennis Sullivan has invited various leaders from the other Christian churches in our South Jersey area to join him for dinner with a group of homeless men before the service and to concelebrate with him in the church. Our Ecumenical Commission has been planning this service for months and we hope you will join us in prayer for the unity that Christ so desires.
Bishop Sullivan and the other Christian bishops and leaders will be joining a group of men from the Interfaith Homeless Outreach Council (IHOC). IHOC seeks to help the homeless by affording them a safe environment provided by various religious groups in our area for two weeks, providing meals, a warm, secure place to sleep and to interact with others. Over a 10-week period the men in the program attend life skills classes on money management, job seeking and developing interpersonal relationships while also working with nonprofit organizations. After this intensive training they are helped with their job search. Once they obtain a job, the men deposit 80 percent of their salaries into an IHOC managed account to be held for them until they secure permanent housing.
The theme for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is, “Has Christ Been Divided?” Each year a different country has the honor of choosing the theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year the theme was chosen by the churches of Canada. Canadians live in a country that has different languages, cultures and environments. They also have a variety of Christian denominations. These differences led the planners to reflect on St. Paul’s rather provocative question in I Corinthians: “Has Christ Been Divided?” We all know the answer to this question is certainly “No!” yet the Christian churches continue to embody scandalous divisions. I Corinthians reminds us that we must work in ways in which we can value and receive the gifts of others, even now in the midst of our divisions, and that is an encouragement to us in our work for unity.
The Canadian Christians who put this year’s service together explained that when they considered the many blessings and gifts of God made manifest in their country and peoples, they began to recognize that they must treat one another and the very land from which they derive their living, with dignity and respect. This recognition has called them to confession and repentance and to the seeking of new and sustainable ways of living on earth. They explained that it has raised their consciousness about how God has blessed all people and that no one group can decide how to use their gifts without hearing and including the voices of all Christians in seeking the ultimate goal of Christian unity.
The Church Unity Octave was first observed in January 1908. Celebrated in the chapel of a small Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on a remote hillside 50 miles from New York City, this new prayer movement caught the imagination of others beyond the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement to become an energetic movement that gradually blossomed into a worldwide observance involving many nations and millions of people. It is now sponsored by the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. On a national basis, materials for the celebration of the Week of Prayer are the work of Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious institute in collaboration with the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
Please come out and join us on Tuesday, Jan. 21, at St. Mary’s in Cherry Hill to pray with our bishop for Christian unity. We all know the answer to St. Paul’s provocative question, Christ cannot be divided. Let us pray for the restoration of unity, so that the world may come to believe.

Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.