“Peace I leave with you” ( Jn 14:27). The next Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, planned from 18 to 24 January 2004, will be inspired by the theme of peace. In Italy the theme of the event was presented by a message signed by leaders of the Christian Churches: Msgr. Giuseppe Chiaretti for Catholics, Metropolitan Gennadios for the Orthodox, and Gianni Long for the Protestants. Peace they say is for Christians “a testament of life. An obligation to life”. The Church leaders emphasise that there is a “fundamental” link between Christian unity and peace among men”. The joint document thus declares: “the witness of peace given by a divided Church is marked by serious ambiguities; in any case it is structurally weak, and lacks credibility, in spite of the goodness of its aim. Hence the strong appeal to the intensification of ecumenical action and in particular to the prayer for unity. Christian unity can become the leaven of the whole human community: leaven of a new society of peace”. The Churches lastly appeal to Christians “not to let themselves be exploited for aggressive actions in the name of God” but to dedicate themselves to giving “a different witness” in the world. The theme of the next Week of Christian Unity has been proposed by an ecumenical group in the city of Aleppo (Syria), composed of Catholic, Orthodox, pre-Chalcedonian and Protestant representatives. “A Christian mosaic in a non-Christian context. There the daily effort comment the Italian Churches is that of brotherly communion in reciprocal respect, the pursuit of cooperation and solidarity”.
