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Materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2024 have been prepared by an ecumenical team from Burkina Faso facilitated by the local Chemin Neuf Community (CCN). They chose the theme 'You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbour as yourself’ (Lk 10:27) and have invited 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.

The parable of the Good Samaritan 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.

More information on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity can be found on the Bishops' Conference website and from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

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Source: Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales

Image attribution: JESUS MAFA. The Good Samaritan, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. [retrieved January 23, 2024]. Original source: Libraire de l'Emmanuel (contact).