Making prayer services “interesting and accessible to everyone”; being “open to symbols cherished by other Christians and, if they are strange to you, asking what they mean”; “adapting the material to local contexts” and “reaching out to Churches and communities that have not participated in the Week of Prayer before”. These are some of the suggestions made by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the European Christian Churches for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (to be held from 18 to 25 January). The WCC has dedicated an entire dossier to preparations for the event (www.wcc-coe.org). The theme of the Week has been proposed this year by an ecumenical group from Aleppo in northern Syria. It is dedicated to peace. The slogan is: “My peace I give to you”. “The concerns of the Christians and churches in Aleppo says the WCC document are shared by others in every region and every land. Peace is all too rare in our world today. Wars, armed conflicts, terrorist attacks and violence of all kinds rock our world daily… The Churches want to work for peace, for true peace which can endure because justice has been done, and reconciliation won. But in order for the Churches to be credible witnesses and promoters of peace, peace needs to reign within and among the Churches”.
