Ecumenical & Interfaith
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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

January 18-25, 2010

"What would the ecumenical movement become without the personal and communal prayer that ‘they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you'? (John 17:21) Where would we find the extra impetus of faith, hope and charity, of which our search for unity has a special need today? Our desire for unity must not be limited to isolated occasions; it must become an integral part of our whole prayer life. . . The ship of ecumenism would never have been put to sea had it not been lifted by this broad current of prayer and wafted by the breath of the Holy Spirit."      — Pope Benedict XVI, at the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2008 (page 12)

The 2010 theme and planning

The theme for the 2010 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was selected by Scottish Christians in celebration of the centenary of the 1910 Edinburgh mission conference. The theme being used for both occasions, "You Are Witnesses of These Things," is based on Luke 24:48. The theme and its occasion link the missionary commitments of the church and its ecumenical commitments. John Gibaut, director of the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission, said at the beginning of the Week of Prayer, "The unexpected intuition to flash forth from the [Edinburgh] conference was the awareness that Christian disunity is destructive to the very mission of the Church, and the corresponding search for Christian unity began."

See U.S.-prepared suggestions for planning the observances in a local area. A poster for the week is available. A variety of resources have been available for ordering from the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute in the U.S. See also the downloadable resources available from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, the Vatican, or the World Council of Churches.

A history of local celebration

As a sign of the unity that is already theirs in Christ, Christians are encouraged to pray together each January 18-25, during a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, that their unity will become complete and visible. This expression of Christian unity originated in 1908, in Graymoor, New York. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began as a local observance and its celebration depends upon local circumstances. The local setting is where unity is built through collaboration and through mutual recogntion and respect for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. The occasion of local cooperation to pray together during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity sometimes encourages churches and their members to do things together at other times.

Since 1968 the World Council of Churches and Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have collaborated annually to select the scriptural theme and accompanying materials for the celebration.

A commentary on participation in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The content of Richard O'Brien's column in the National Catholic Reporter on January 11 is a plea to those who pray during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. He writes about the changes in membership in the Catholic church and the tensions in the Episcopal Church. He recalls that the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began with an Episcopalian who became a Catholic. Given its size, he says, "unless the Catholic church is the strongest and most committed participant in the ecumenical movement, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity can have only a limited effect."  He also comments, "Anglicanism has traditionally seen itself a bridge within the divided Body of Christ. But, again, if the Anglican communion is itself torn by internal division, how can it serve the full Body of Christ as an effective bridge between the Catholic church and the broad community of Protestant denominations?" O'Brien's challenge is: "Those committed to the restoration of Christian unity should be deeply concerned about . . . developments within Catholicism and Anglicanism. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an appropriate time to act upon these concerns."