Introduction to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18 – 25, 2024) is an important week for us as we seek to live more fully our ecumenical call in the Sword of the Spirit. Each year the Lord uses it in powerful ways in our communities around the world, and I am confident that that will be the case this year as well.
Each year the team who puts together the Sword of the Spirit prayer booklet for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, work with the materials provided by the World Council of Churches in conjunction with the Vatican. This year those materials were put together by an ecumenical working group from Burkina Faso which was facilitated by the local Chemin Neuf Community, and they focus on the foundational theme “You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27 RSV).
The Sword of the Spirit team this year have added testimonies from different members of our communities around the world where we have been involved in ecumenical collaboration, adding intercessory prayers that reflect our particular Sword of the Spirit ecumenical concerns.
The testimonies not only illustrate examples of our desire to work ecumenically wherever we have opportunity, but also that we do this in a collaborative way, working with other Christians wherever we can, “spreading our tent pegs” so to speak, to embrace in love all those the Lord leads us to serve and work with.
May I encourage you to enter into the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in whatever way you can. Let us pray the closing prayer each day, as a way to lift to the Lord our desire in the Sword of the Spirit for Christian unity, that together we might “love God… and our neighbor as ourselves” and so see the Kingdom come.
Jean Barbara
President, The Sword of the Spirit
This article is excerpted from © The Sword of the Spirit reflections for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity January 18 – 25 2024.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2024
January 18-25, 2024
You shall love the Lord your God …
Luke 10:27
and your neighbor as yourself
Contents
- Introduction
- Biblical text for 2024
- Day 1: Thursday, January 18, 2024
- West London Walk of Witness
- Day 2, Friday, January 19, 2024
- Power from on High Community, Lima, Peru
- Day 3, Saturday, January 20, 2024
- Day 4, Sunday, January 21, 2024
- Vasai/Mumbai Ecumenical Intercession
- Day 5, Monday, January 22, 2024
- Christian Unity in Honduras
- Day 6, Tuesday, January 23, 2024
- Day 7, Wednesday, January 24, 2024
- An Encouraging Friendship
- Day 8, Thursday, January 25, 2024
Top image credit: Christians holding crosses together, illustration from Bigstock.com, © by melitas, stock photo ID: 478003757. Quote from John 17 added. Image used with permission.
Jean Barbara is a coordinator from the People of God Community in Beirut, Lebanon. He currently serves as the International President of the Sword of the Spirit.