wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Week of Prayer 2011 looks to Jerusalem

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>World Council of Churches - News

WEEK OF PRAYER 2011 LOOKS TO JERUSALEM FOR ESSENTIALS OF UNITY

>For immediate release: 01 July 2010

Next year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be grounded  in the
experience of the churches in Jerusalem. Resources in four languages  have
already been made available on the website of the World Council  of
Churches (WCC).

The theme - "One in the apostles’ teaching, fellowship,  breaking of bread
and prayer" - was chosen by a group of Christian leaders from Jerusalem
and is based on the book of Acts (2:42). It is a call for inspiration  and
renewal, a return to the essentials of the faith; it is a call to  remember
the time when the church was still one.

Traditionally celebrated between 18 and 25 January (in the northern
hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere), the week  of
prayer mobilizes countless congregations and parishes around the  world.
During that week, Christians from different confessional families  get
together and - at least on that occasion - pray together in special
ecumenical celebrations.

"The unity of the church we seek is not a mere abstraction," WCC  general
secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit wrote in a letter to the WCC  member
churches introducing the prayers for 2011. "For Christians in Jerusalem,
who live in continuity with the apostolic community of Jerusalem,  the
mother church of us all, such unity entails prayer, reflection and  a cry
arising within a context of despair and suffering. Together with  them we
trust that God is ever vigilant as we pray for peace and justice  for all
inhabitants of the Holy Land."

The production of the liturgical and biblical material for the week  of
prayer is jointly coordinated since 1968 by the World Council of  Churches
(Faith and Order Commission) and the Roman Catholic Church (Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity).

Resources for the week are available in English, French, German,  Portuguese
and Spanish, and include an introduction to the theme; a suggested
ecumenical celebration which local churches are encouraged to adapt  for
their own particular liturgical, social and cultural contexts; biblical
reflections and prayers for the "eight days"; and additional prayers  from,
and an overview of, the ecumenical situation in Jerusalem.

More information and the brochure for the Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=96714d0b6fae7f9c9dc1
)

WCC member churches in Palestine and Israel (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=8b88b9191be1ed9f68df )

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,  witness and 
service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship  of churches 
founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560  million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the  Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

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