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A round table on the meaning of prayer for unity in situations of conflict and distress and an ecumenical celebration gathering Genevan churches marked the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at the headquarters of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Sunday, 20 January.
"In our community we would not be able to survive without praying, as it is in prayer that we experience that God is with us", said Dominican sister Sheila Flynn, co-founder of the Kopanang Women's Group in Geluksdal and Tsakane, two townships near Johannesburg, South Africa. The Kopanang project helps women, many of them living with HIVand AIDS, to generate income creating artwork for sale. A nursery school for children affected by HIV and AIDS and a kitchen feeding 400 children daily are also attached to the project.
With 65 million people living with HIV and AIDS, 70% of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and a prospect of 40 million children orphaned because of HIV and AIDS by 2010, we are facing "a cataclysm without parallel in recorded history", Flynn said. "The body of Christ is vulnerable in a way we never experienced before." It is because of this that working for unity is urgent. Responding to this catastrophic pandemic is "a journey we must take together, not separate in any way from the people among whom we live and work and have our being".
The role of prayer was also emphasized by Rev. Roswitha Golder, the pastor of the Latin American Christian community in Geneva. A Spanish and Portuguese speaking congregation, it was created by political refugees 17 years ago and augmented along the years by successive waves of economic immigrants, most of them "without papers" or in the process of regularisation. The congregation is one of at least 70 churches of migrants in the city of Calvin. The challenge is "to be the body of Christ in Geneva in a colourful, multiconfessional, multicultural fashion", Golder said.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is "an invitation to renew our commitment with the ecumenical vision both spiritually and practically ", said Rev. Jean-Claude Mokry, from the Old-Catholic Church, preaching at the ecumenical celebration that followed the round table. The celebration in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, jointly organized with the Association of Churches and Christian Communities of Geneva (Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés chrétiennes de Genève), gathered members and leaders of the main Christian confessions present in Geneva.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Traditionally observed between 18-25 January in the northern hemisphere and around Pentecost in the southern hemisphere, the Week of Prayer is celebrated in congregations and parishes all over the world. Biblical and liturgical materials for the week are published jointly by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the WCC's Commission on Faith and Order.
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More information on the Week of prayer for Christian unity
Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés chrétiennes de Genève
Feature: Praying together for Christian unity throughout a century of changes