Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18 - 25, 2012
The theme for the annual celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2012 has been announced by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches.
click image for photos
of the service
at St. Patrick’s
On Wednesday, January 18th, in honor of the start of the 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a service was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Archibishop Timothy Dolan presided, Dr. A.R. Bernard, pastor of Christian Community Center in Brooklyn, spoke, and Fr. Timothy MacDonald, SA, Vicar General of the Friars of the Atonement, and Fr. James Loughran, SA, participated in the service.
The theme for the 2012 Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity is:
We Will All Be Changed by the Victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ
(cf. I Corinthians 15:51–58)
Following extensive discussion, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and Old Catholic and Protestant Churches in Poland. decided to focus on a theme that is concerned with the transformative power of faith in Christ, particularly in relation to our praying for the visible unity of the Church, the Body of Christ. It is based on St Paul's words to the Corinthian Church which speak of the temporary nature of our present lives in comparison to what we receive through the victory of Christ through the Paschal mystery. This "victory" is only possible through spiritual transformation, conversion. As we pray for and strive towards the full visible unity of the church we, and the traditions to which we belong, will be changed, transformed and conformed to the likeness of Christ.
GRAYMOOR LECTURE SERIES
The Fifth Graymoor Lecture was given by Rev. Dr. William G Rusch on May 13th. Dr. Rusch is a Lutheran pastor who has served as the Executive Director of the Foundation for a Conference on Faith and Order in North America, the Director of the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and as the Director of the Department of Ecumenical Affairs and Assistant to the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. retiring Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury's Representative to the Holy See.
His Lecture was entitled: A Lutheran View of Where the Ecumenical Movement Stands in Spring of 2010.
