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By Rev. Timothy MacDonald,
SA, Associate Director
Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute
The Church Unity Octave
was first observed in January, 1908. Celebrated in the chapel
of a small Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, on a remote hillside fifty miles from New
York City, 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.
To fully appreciate this stream that had been
fed by some and had converged with others in the historical
development of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we
will note some aspects of the movement's early history. Two
American Episcopalians, Father Paul James Wattson and Sister
Lurana White, co-founders of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters
of the Atonement, were totally committed to the reunion of
the Anglican Communion with the Roman Catholic Church. As
such, they started a prayer movement that explicitly prayed
for the return of non-Catholic Christians to the Holy See.
Needless to say, such an observance would attract few of our
separated brothers and sisters except for a small number of
Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics themselves. This idea
of a period of prayer for Christian unity originated in a
conversation of Fr. Wattson with an English clergyman, Rev.
Spencer Jones. In 1907 Jones suggested that a day be set aside
for prayer for Christian unity. Fr. Paul Wattson agreed with
the concept but offered the idea of an octave of prayer between
the Feast of St. Peter's Chair on January 18 and the Feast
of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25.
When Fr. Paul and Sr. Lurana became Roman Catholics,
Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the Church Unity Octave and
in 1916, Pope Benedict XV extended its observance to the universal
church. This recognition by papal authority gave the Octave
its impetus throughout the Roman Catholic Church. Until his
death in 1940 Fr. Wattson promoted the Church Unity Octave,
later known as the Chair of Unity Octave to emphasize its
Petrine focus, through his magazine, The Lamp.
What were some of the important historical
antecedents to this octave of prayer? Certainly in the 19th
century, the desire for Christians to pray together was part
of the spirit of the age among those alarmed by the divisions
which weakened the power of Christian witness. In 1846, for
instance, the Evangelical Alliance was established in London
and had developed both international and inter-church connections.
Ruth Rouse noted that it was "the one and only definitely
ecumenical organization . . . which arose out of the Evangelical
Awakening in the 19th century" (A History of the Ecumenical
Movement: 1517-1948). The concept of unity espoused in their
constitution was union among Christian individuals of different
churches for renewal in the Spirit; they would not deal with
the question of the reunion of churches. The Alliance set
aside one week beginning on the first Sunday of the year,
for united prayer by members of different churches to pray
for renewal in the Spirit.
The Association for the Promotion of the Unity
of Christians was founded in 1857 with Anglican, Roman Catholic
and Orthodox participation. Its purpose was "for united
prayer that visible unity may be restored to Christendom."
Unfortunately Rome withdrew its support for the Association.
The problem, of course, was not the act of prayer in itself
as much as the questions that surfaced concerning the nature
of the church and the nature of the unity being sought through
prayer. This difficulty would not begin to be resolved until
almost the middle of the 20th century.
It is noteworthy that the popes had urged Roman
Catholics to pray for Christian unity but from the particular
stance of return to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1894 Leo
XIII encouraged Catholics to recite the rosary for the intention
of Christian unity. Again, in 1897, he decreed in Provida
matris that the days between Ascension and Pentecost should
be dedicated to prayer for reconciliation with our separated
brethren. In his encyclical Divinum Illud , Leo sought to
establish this practice of prayer as a permanent feature of
the Roman Catholic Church.
The Lambeth Conferences during this period
also promoted prayer for Christian unity. Rouse notes that
the second conference of 1878 was typical of the concern of
Anglicans for reunion. At that conference, the bishops spoke
of their desire that the conference support the observance
of a season of prayer for the unity of Christendom.
In 1913 the Faith and Order Commission of the
Protestant Episcopal Church published a leaflet promoting
prayer for unity on Whitsunday and in 1915 published a Manual
of Prayer for Unity. The preparatory Conference on Faith and
Order at Geneva in 1920 appealed for a special week of prayer
for Christian unity ending with Whitsunday. Faith and Order
continued to issue "Suggestions for an Octave of Prayer
for Christian Unity" until 1941 when it changed the dates
for its week to that of the January Octave. In this way, Christians,
who for reasons of conscience, could not join with others
in prayer services could share in united prayer at the same
time. These various efforts while not attaining wide observance
among the churches was to pave the way for the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity which came to be observed widely throughout
Christendom.
In 1935 Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest
of the Archdiocese of Lyons, sought a solution to the problem
of non-Roman Catholics not being able to observe the Octave
of Prayer for Christian Unity. He found the solution in the
Roman Missal as the Association for Promotion of the Unity
of Christians had done seventy-eight years earlier in England.
Couturier promoted prayer for Christian unity on the inclusive
basis that "our Lord would grant to his Church on earth
that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when,
on the eve of His Passion, He prayed that all might be one."
This prayer would unite Christians in prayer for that perfect
unity that God wills and by the means that he wills. Like
Fr. Paul Wattson, Abbé Couturier exhibited a powerful
passion for unity and had sent out "calls to prayer"
annually until his death in 1953.
While not all Catholics had accepted Couturier's
solution and some continued to emphasize the centrality of
the Petrine office in unity efforts and prayer, all difficulties
were resolved in 1964 with the promulgation of the Decree
on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council. The Decree told
Roman Catholics in clear and unambiguous terms: "In certain
special circumstances, such as in prayer services for unity
and during ecumenical gatherings, it is allowable, indeed
desirable, that Catholics should join in prayer with their
separated brethren. Such prayers in common are certainly a
very effective means of petitioning for the grace of unity,
and they are a genuine expression of the ties which even now
bind Catholics to their separated brethren."
In 1993 the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity issued the Directory for the Application of
Principles and Norms of Ecumenism and explicitly encouraged
participation in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. So
today the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity belongs to all
Christians who are sincerely interested in the fulfillment
of Christ's prayer "that all may be one." When he
discusses prayer in common in his A Handbook of Spiritual
Ecumenism, Cardinal Walter Kasper specifically mentions that
"the celebration of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity world-wide is an initiative of singular importance to
be encouraged and further developed."
It is sponsored by the Commission on Faith
and Order of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical
Council for Christian Unity. On a national basis, materials
for the celebration of the Week of Prayer are the work of
Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute in collaboration
with the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council
of Churches and the Roman Catholic Bishops' Commission for
Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
The theme for the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity in 2010 comes to us from the Scottish churches
who at the same time have been preparing to celebrate the
centenary of the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference. The
Edinburgh Missionary Conference is regarded as the beginning
of the modern ecumenical movement. The theme for the centenary
conference is "Witnessing to Christ today". It is
therefore fitting that the Scottish churches had suggested
as the theme of the Week of Prayer this year Luke 24:48: "You
Are Witnesses of These Things." The focus is on the church's
call to mission, the same mission Christ gave his disciples.
The Church is the community of those who have been reconciled
with God and in God, and who can now witness together to the
Gospel of salvation in unity that respects diversity. Such
is the ideal set before the Christian churches in the Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity theme for 2010 so that the world
may believe.
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