Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

At least once a year, many Christians become aware of the great diversity of ways of adoring God. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbours' ways are not so strange.  

The event that touches off this special experience is something called the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Traditionally celebrated between 18-25 January (in the northern hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere), the Week of Prayer enters into congregations and parishes all over the world. Pulpits are exchanged, and special ecumenical worship services are arranged. 

Ecumenical partners in a particular region are asked to prepare a basic text on a biblical theme. Then an international group with WCC-sponsored (Protestant and Orthodox) and Roman Catholic participants edits this text and ensures that it is linked with the search for the unity of the church.  

The text is jointly published by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and WCC, through the WCC's Commission on Faith and Order, which also accompanies the entire production process of the text. The final material is sent to member churches and Roman Catholic dioceses, and they are invited to translate the text and contextualize it for their own use.

You are witnesses of these things.

The theme for 2010 was chosen in Scotland, where churches were, at the same time, preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the 1910 World Mission Conference on the theme "Witnessing to Christ today", which marked the beginnings of the modern ecumenical movement.

Brochure for 2010 in pdf format

• in English
• in French
• in German
• in Portuguese
• in Spanish

In 1908, the Rev. Paul Wattson, a North American Anglican priest, founded the "Octave for unity". The Faith and Order movement began publishing "Suggestions for an octave of prayer for Christian unity" in 1926. 

In 1966, the WCC Commission on Faith and Order and the Roman Catholic Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (now known as the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity-PCPCU) began official joint preparation of materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  

Joint publication of identical texts began in 2004, printing of all brochures by the WCC in 2006. Texts and additional worship material for the week of prayer now appear on the WCC website in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.