Our hope” “

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is being held from 18 to 24 January. This year it has as its theme “My peace I give you” (Jn 14:23-31). The theme was suggested at the world level by an ecumenical group in the city of Aleppo (Syria), composed of Catholic, Orthodox, Pre-Chalcedonian and Protestant representatives. “Today the world – they write – has a need of great and merciful hearts. It has a need of this prayer that rises spontaneously amid the lamentations of humanity”. “Peace in this world – they add – seems to be beyond our grasp, and is hampered at every step”. Our hope is that the third millennium may be a millennium of peace, a millennium of return to faith in God”. Here are some of the events being planned for the celebration of the Week in Europe. S switzerland. On the portal of the Catholic Church it is recalled that Christians throughout the world will celebrate Easter on the same date in 2004. “The mystery of Easter – says the website – is the source of our hope and our mission, it’s the promise of a peace that is possible. It reminds us that if violence, injustice and hatred may increase, it is the power of God that transforms death into life”. 2004 also forms part of the Decade of “Overcoming violence”, promoted by the World Council of Churches, “an initiative that invites us to prayer and calls us to dedicate ourselves to the search for peace”. France. “How can we bear witness to the gift that Christ has given us of his peace, in a world shattered by wars?”. And “what credibility can this witness have if the Churches that propose it remain divided?”. It is with these questions that Father Michel Mallèvre begins his editorial in the ecumenical review Unité des chrétiens, promoted by the French Episcopal Conference. The head of the office for ecumenism recalls that “a large majority of Churches were recently able to unite together to reject the war in Iraq… At a time when there is talk of stagnation in the ecumenical process, this common commitment to ‘overcoming violence’ deserves to be underlined”. Numerous events are being organized by the French Churches to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. From Grenoble a Versailles, in almost all the dioceses of France, prayer vigils, ecumenical celebrations, and meetings on this year’s theme are planned from 18 to 25 January. An event of particular interest is being held in Troyes, where an interreligious meeting on the theme “religions: factors of peace?” is planned for 9 February; the participants will include Hocine Raïs of the Grand Mosque in Paris, chief Rabbi Sirat and Bishop Teissier of Algiers. Italy. To mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the leaders of the Christian Churches in Italy have sent a joint message presenting the theme of the Week to their communities. The document is signed by Msgr. Giuseppe Chiaretti for the Catholics, Metropolitan Gennadios for the Orthodox and Gianni Long for the Protestants. Peace – they affirm – is for Christians “a testament of life and a commitment to life”. But – they add – “the witness of peace given by a divided Church is marked by serious ambiguities, in any case it is structurally weak, and has little credibility, in spite of the goodness of its aim”. There is therefore a “fundamental” link between the unity of Christians and peace among men. Another initiative planned for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in Italy is promoted by the ecumenical Citadel “Taddeide” (in Central Italy): each Thursday Christians are invited to light up in their own homes the “lamp of unity” as a sign of the offering of their own life “so that all may be one”. In Italy, as each year, the Week is being preceded (on 17 January) by the Day of Christian-Jewish dialogue. Spain. Catholics in Orthodox venues, Evangelicals in Catholic churches and vice versa: that’s how the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is being celebrated in Spain, in an atmosphere of brotherhood and friendship. The Spanish Episcopal Conference has made available various pastoral aids to help communities to prepare meditations, ecumenical vigils and homilies. A warning of the impossibility of intercommunion has however been issued by the episcopate’s Commission for interconfessional relations, in a message that declares as follows: “It is not possible to participate in the same supper of the Lord if we are not reunited below the same roof of the Church”. The document is signed by Bishop Ricardo Blázquez of Bilbao, chairman, and other members of the commission. The poster for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity shows hands that transmit peace and many other hands, “signifying the gift of peace that proceeds from God and is received by man”.