Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

We are fast approaching this most important time of year for any ecumenical group. The Week of Prayer is just over 100 years old as an idea, and its now an established part of the Church calendar. The reason the dates 18th-25th January were chosen originially was that 18th January was originally the Feast of the Chair of St Peter ( now 22nd February ) and 25th is the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul. So it was logical to sandwich the week of prayer with these two feasts, which celebrate the two great saints who worked through their differences of opinion to unite the church when an early split in theological understanding ( whether or not someone who wanted to be Christian had to convert to Judaism first ) was threatening.

When I took over as FACT Chair I said I wanted this most important week to be marked in a special way and to be a genuine WEEK of prayer, not just one united worship.

Well, my rallying call has been answered and we do indeed this year have a genuine week of prayer with services on each day of the Octave ( alright we are starting on the 17th so the 25th will be empty ! )

So the next few posts will set out what is planned. Please try and attend as many as you can and learn something about another tradition's way of worship. The two groundrules we set were that there was to be no "watering down" of normal services and respect for each others' position on inter-communion. The aim is to truely discover the Unity we have while discovering our Diversity.