"You are witnesses of these things." Luke 24:48.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is a worldwide celebration in which Christians of all denominations come together to pray for Christian Unity. Various Christian communities throughout the Houston area hosted a night of the week of prayer, January 18 - 25, 2010.
Schedule:
January 18, 7 pm The Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart
January 19, 7 pm St. Mary’s Seminary Chapel
January 20, 7 pm UST Chapel of St. Basil
January 21, 7 pm St. Theresa Catholic Church
January 22, 7 pm Windsor Village United Methodist Church
January 23, 6 pm Christ the King Lutheran Church
January 24, 6 pm St. Martin's Episcopal Church
January 25, 7 pm The Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart
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Ecumenism has shown how important prayer is for Christian unity, and for 100 years, Christians have gathered around the world to pray in communion with the prayer of Jesus “that they all may be one” (John 17:21). Houston-area Christians of all confessions will collaborate during the week-long observance to come together in prayer.
“Christians, who share belief in Christ and share one baptism and one Lord are obligated to overcome the stumbling block of disunity,” said Fr. Donald Nesti, CSSp, director of the UST Center for Faith and Culture. “Obliged by their belief Christians of every generation and every decade must enter into relationship of prayer and dialogue to sense where it is that the Holy Spirit is leading them to be one. Only the Spirit can be the ‘Glue’ that will reassemble a fractured Body.”
The Church Unity Octave, a forerunner of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, was first celebrated in January 1908 by the Rev. Paul Wattson, SA, at Graymoor in Garrison, N.Y. The eight days between two liturgical feasts, the Confession of St. Peter (Jan. 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan. 25), seemed especially appropriate to pray for the unity of the Church.
“This new prayer movement caught the imagination of others beyond the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement to become an energetic movement that gradually blossomed into a worldwide observance involving many nations and millions of people,” said Rev. Timothy MacDonald, SA, associate director of Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute.
The 2010 theme, “You Are Witness of These Things,” comes from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 24 verse 48. Each prayer service will integrate the theme along with Luke’s entire chapter 24. All prayer and celebration is open to the public.