The 2016 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place between 18–25 January and is an opportunity for Christians from a range of traditions to join together in worship and share stories of God at work throughout the wider Church.
The Chairman of the Church of Ireland’s Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue, the Rt Revd John McDowell, said: “I would encourage as many Christian communities as possible to involve themselves in some common act of worship during the forthcoming Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as it provides an opportunity for the many Christian traditions in Ireland to express in visible terms their underlying unity in Jesus Christ.
“Churches Together in Britain and Ireland have once again produced a range of first class worship and study material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which can be accessed at www.ctbi.org.uk”
This year’s theme is Salt of the Earth and is based on 1 Peter 2:9–10:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Peter’s first letter is an encouragement to the newly baptised believers to live holy lives and to answer the calling shared by all the baptised to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord.
Christian Aid is providing ‘Go and Do’ action points for each of the daily reflections, linking into its important work in relieving poverty and advocating for justice, available from this link.
Clergy and parishioners can also show their support for Christian unity by posting messages and details of events on twitter and adding the #wpcuwall hashtag. Resources can be downloaded here.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been jointly celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC) since 1968. Content for Salt of the Earth has been produced for worldwide use by Christians in Latvia – a crossroads between the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox traditions – and adapted by writers in Britain and Ireland.
Material for the week is now available for the first time in smartphone and tablet formats as a result of a collaboration between the WCC and YouVersion, developer of the Bible App.