There is great mobilization throughout Europe for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity celebrations (January 18-25) marking its hundredth anniversary. In fact, the octave of prayer for Christian Unity was celebrated for the first time in 1908 on the initiative of Father Paul Wattson, an Episcopalian minister (an Anglican from the United States), cofounder of the Society of the Atonement. Sixty years later, in 1968, the initiative came under the name of “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” and was jointly prepared by the Faith and Constitution Commission (Ecumenical Council of Churches) and by the Secretariat for the promotion of Christian Unity (Catholic Church). The issue chosen for this year’s anniversary is an exhortation from the first Letter to the Tessalonians :”Pray constantly”. In Italy, the Week is presented to Christian communities of the Country with a message written by the representatives of the Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Churches. “Prayer -they wrote- is the only force capable of facing and winning over Christians’ divisions”. On the occasion of the centenary of the Week, a solemn ecumenical celebration will be held in Paris on Wednesday, January 23 in the Saint Gervais-Saint Protais church with the contribution of Orthodox choruses. Still in France, the two Protestant and Catholic networks – “Presence Protestante” and “Le jour du Seigneur” – jointly promoted a program transmitted by France 2 on Sunday January 20th from 10 to 12 with live broadcasting from the “Sainte Etienne” Catholic Church in Gard where Claude Baty, President of the Protestant Federation of France, will be preaching. In England the diffusion of material on the Week is organized by “Churches together in Britain and Ireland”, a British body founded in 1987 which avails itself of the participation of Christian Churches and communities in the Country.
