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This year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has the theme is ‘You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbour as yourself’ (Lk 10:27). The Week of Prayer is traditionally observed from the 18-25 January – the octave of St Peter and St Paul.
Materials for the week have been prepared by an ecumenical team from Burkina Faso facilitated by the local Chemin Neuf Community (CCN). Brothers and sisters from the Catholic Archdiocese of Ouagadougou, Protestant Churches, ecumenical bodies and the CCN in Burkina Faso collaborated generously in drafting the prayers and reflections. They experienced their work together as a real path of ecumenical conversion.
The parable of the Good Samaritan has been chosen as the Scripture passage for the Week of Prayer, it is one of the best known passages of Scripture, yet one that never seems to lose its power to challenge indifference to suffering and to inspire solidarity. It is a story about crossing boundaries that calls our attention to the bonds that unite the whole human family.
The churches of Burkina Faso invite us to join with them in a process of self-reflection as they consider what it means to love our neighbour in the midst of a security crisis. Communities in the British-Irish context may be less vulnerable to acts of mass violence than in Burkina Faso, but there are still many living with the memory and/or the threat of serious violence, centred on issues of identity and belonging. There are also groups within communities, including people from ethnic minority backgrounds and people seeking asylum, who feel particularly vulnerable to violence or being displaced by the threat of violence.
To download supporting resources please click on the button below.
St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Brighton (2 Bristol Road, Kemptown, BN2 1AP) are inviting church communities in Brighton and Hove to Ecumenical Vespers at 4pm on Sunday 21 January, taking the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as the theme for the gospel, homily and prayers. A flyer for this service can be found below.
On Saturday 11 May monks from St John the Baptist with the Archdeacon of Brighton & Lewes, and the Vicar of St Nicholas, Fr Dominic Keech, are planning a pilgrimage around Brighton's Churches, exploring the area's counter-cultural Christian heritage and shedding light on how to live this question in the city today - further details of the event will be advertised in the Brighton Fringe programme and on the parish website.
A Church of England initiative – Thy Kingdom Come – offers a range of activities in the days between Ascension and Pentecost, 9 to 19 Maywith some ue to be promoted across the churches ighton & Hove. Click here to visit Thy Kingdom Come's website and find out more.
