(January 25, 2010) We celebrate the Church Unity Octave in the third week of January.
At the very heart of the ecumenical movement is the reality of prayer. Jesus prayed
that we may all be one, united in God in the mystery of the Trinity. That is the basis
and the goal of our search for unity. During his Last Discourse at the Last Supper
as recorded in the Gospel of John., Jesus says in his High Priestly Prayer: “Holy
Father, keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one even as
we are one.” Ecumenism takes as it starting point that Christ founded just one Church,
not many churches; hence the Roman Catholic Church has as its ultimate hope and objective
- that through prayer, study, and dialogue, the historically separated bodies may
come again to be reunited with it. Christian ecumenism, in the narrower sense referred
to above, is the promotion of unity or cooperation between distinct religious groups
or denominations of Christianity. Ecumenism in this broad sense is a faith movement.
The interfaith movement strives for greater mutual respect, toleration, and co-operation
among the world religions. Ecumenism as interfaith dialogue between representatives
of diverse faiths, does not necessarily intend reconciling their adherents into full,
organic unity with one another but simply to promote better relations. It promotes
toleration, mutual respect and cooperation, whether among Christian denominations,
or between Christianity and other faiths. The Catholic Church sees itself as the
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church, founded by Christ himself. Its teachings
state the proper Church of Christ is identical with the Catholic Church, thus excluding
all other Christian religious groups and churches. Before the Second Vatican Council,
the Roman Catholic Church defined ecumenism as relations with other Christian groups
in order to persuade these to return to a unity that they themselves had broken.
Pursuit of unity, thus understood, was always a principal aim of the Church. At the
Council of Lyon in 1274 and the Council of Florence in 1438, in which some bishops
of the Eastern Orthodox Churches participated, reunion formulas were worked out that,
however, failed to win acceptance by the Eastern Churches. The Roman Catholic Church
even before the Second Vatican Council always considered it a duty of the highest
rank to seek full unity with estranged communions of fellow-Christians, and at the
same time to reject what it saw as promiscuous and false union that would mean being
unfaithful to or glossing over the teaching of Sacred Scripture and Tradition. The
aim of the Second Vatican Council, as its initiator, Pope John XXIII, stated, was
to seek renewal from within the Church itself, which would serve, for those separated
from the see of Rome, as a "gentle invitation to seek and find that unity for which
Jesus Christ prayed so ardently to his heavenly Father." The Council opened up an
era of earnest endeavour not only to explain to others the Church's teaching, but
also to understand their outlook. While the Roman Catholic Church sees itself as the
one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Christ himself, it recognizes
that elements of salvation are found in other churches also. The Second Vatican Council's
document, Lumen Gentium, 8, states that the sole church of Christ as "subsists in
or exists in" rather than simply "is identical with" the Catholic Church. Significant
agreements have been achieved on baptism, ministry and the Eucharist with Anglican
theologians. With Lutheran bodies a similar agreement has been reached on the theology
of justification. These landmark documents have brought closer fraternal ties with
those churches. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity lasts from January 18th until
January 25th and is a time when Christians of all groups are called to pray for the
unity of the Church. Pope Leo XIII had asked for Catholics to pray for Christian unity
and in 1897 established the continual recitation of a novena. The actual dates of
the week of prayer were established by Spencer Jones, an Anglican priest and Lewis
Wattson, an Episcopal priest who later converted to Catholicism. They suggested the
dates of January 18-25 to begin with the old date of the Confession or Chair of St.
Peter and end on the feast of Conversion of St. Paul, holy days within the Church
year. Pope Pius X approved the new octave and extended its observance throughout the
whole of the Catholic Church. Paul Couturier, a Frenchman, is well known for popularizing
the week. The links below explain more of the history of the octave and served as
sources for this brief introduction. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity invites
the whole Christian community throughout the world to pray in communion with the prayer
of Jesus “that they all may be one”. In 1966, the Faith and Order Commission of
the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Secretariat /Council for Promoting Christian
Unity began collaborating as a common international text for worldwide usage. The
theme for the annual celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was prepared
and announced by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission
on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches. Every year the theme is given
in advance to help people to pray for the Unity in the Church. The theme for the 2010
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is You Are Witnesses of These Things. It comes
from Luke's gospel Chapter 24 verse 48. This is also the theme which Scottish Christians
have chosen to celebrate the centenary of the Edinburgh Mission Conference. One of
our main concerns as Catholics is the unity of the entire Christian community because
of the vast amount of theology, practice, and morality that we have in common. We
also pray for the unity of all Christians. We try to promote these goals through honest
dialogue about areas where we disagree and working together where we agree. Following
the words of Pope John Paul II, we at Ancient and Future Catholics want to "breathe
with both lungs." We believe the best way to achieve unity between Orthodox and Catholics
is twofold: prayer and mutual understanding. This is also how we will accomplish greater
unity with our Protestant brothers and sisters. On Ancient and Future Catholics we
have always worked towards mutual understanding and now we want to make prayer for
visible unity another primary focus. Several suggestions have been made for these
8 days. The first obvious activity is prayer. Each day prayer suggestions are posted,
but above all, special prayers are made for visible unity between the Orthodox and
Catholic Churches, and with other churches as well. Secondly, readings are provided
from both Eastern and Western Christian writers. This purpose is to help each side
become more acquainted with the riches involved in the Western and Eastern heritage.
This will also include liturgical texts. Finally, practical suggestions are put forward
for better relations with individual Orthodox and Catholics, principles which apply
also to better and cordial relationships with Protestants. Although the primary focus
is on Catholic-Orthodox relations, the secondary focus will be prayer for the unity
of all Christians and the conversion of non-Christians. This effort is not officially
associated with any diocese or parish and Christians are called upon to be loyal to
the Magisterium and bishops. Ecumenism leads simply to laymen trying to live out our
faith. It is a real blessing when there’s unity of purpose and action in any group,
from the basic family to the nation as a whole. When there’s unity for a good purpose,
then wonderful things can happen. It’s said of great teams that their unity and focusing
on victory have a huge bearing on their success. If this is time in the social and
natural order, it is all the more necessary in the area of Church, and among the followers
of Christ. Indeed, Jesus himself stressed this vital requirement in his teaching.
In the context of the Last Supper and the Bread of Eucharist, he prayed to his Father
that “all may be one”. The presence of unity is expressed in terms of what truth his
followers believe in; also the ways they pray and worship God, and finally in the
manner they are led as a believing community. The Church Unity Octave was first
observed in January, 1908. Celebrated in the chapel of a small Atonement Franciscan
Convent of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on a remote hillside fifty miles from
New York City, this new prayer movement caught the imagination of others beyond the
Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement to become an energetic movement that
gradually blossomed into a worldwide observance involving many nations and millions
of people. Two American Episcopalians, Father Paul James Wattson and Sister Lurana
White, co-founders of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, were totally
committed to the reunion of the Anglican Communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
As such, they started a prayer movement that explicitly prayed for the return of non-Catholic
Christians to the Holy See. Needless to say, such an observance would attract few
of our separated brothers and sisters except for a small number of Anglo-Catholics
and Roman Catholics themselves. In 1907 Jones suggested that a day be set aside for
prayer for Christian unity. Fr. Paul Wattson agreed with the concept but offered the
idea of an octave of prayer between the Feast of St. Peter's Chair on January 18 and
the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25. When Fr. Paul and Sr. Lurana
became Roman Catholics, Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the Church Unity Octave and
in 1916; Pope Benedict XV extended its observance to the universal church. This recognition
by papal authority gave the Octave its impetus throughout the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1924, Pope Pius XI asked the Benedictine religious to make it their special task
to pray and work for Christian unity. In the 1930s Wattson changed the name “Church
Unity Octave” to the “Chair of Unity Octave”, emphasizing the role of the papacy in
the union of the Christian churches. In 1935 Abbé Paul Couturier, a Catholic priest
in France, advocated a “Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” during which
Christians would pray together ‘for the unity Christ wills by the means He wills’.
Common Christian prayer for unity continued to grow throughout the world. Pope John
XXIII, in 1959, in an apostolic letter, sent his approval for the universal Catholic
Church to observe this Octave. With the Second Vatican Council, 1962-1965, an increasing
number of Roman Catholics joined other Christians each year in January for common
prayer for unity. The council’s Decree on Ecumenism, promulgated in 1964, called prayer
the soul of the ecumenical movement and encouraged the observance of what is now known
as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In 1966, the Faith and Order Commission
of the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Secretariat, now Council for Promoting
Christian Unity began collaborating on a common international text for worldwide usage.
Since 1968 these international texts, which are based on themes proposed by ecumenical
groups throughout the world, have been developed, adapted and published for use in
the United States by the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. To assist
in this endeavour, the GEII invites contributions from ecumenists and church leaders
in America. In 1966, the Vatican Secretariat and the World Council of Churches met
to plan the future of the Week of Prayer and to appoint a joint working group to compile
the materials. In 1973, they took a new approach for each upcoming year by having
an ecumenical group in a given country make the first draft and the international
group finalized it for worldwide distribution. Although the Week of Prayer developed
on the fringes of any official ecumenical movements, it shows well how prayer and
collaboration over time does change attitudes. The Catholic Church did not become
a member of the World Council of Churches, but the two entities have worked well together
in a spirit of true ecumenism. The goal has moved beyond union with Rome to unity
of thinking and practice as believers in Christ and Christianity. By 1991 an observance
called Ecumenical Sunday had also become fully integrated into the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity. It began as a response to local councils of churches which hoped
to find a common Sunday when local churches might interpret to their members the meaning
and work of the ecumenical movement. In 1983, the National Council of Churches’ Governing
Board urged their member communions to name such a Sunday. Eventually, conversations
among organizers of the Week of Prayer and representatives of the NCC and local councils
led to placing Ecumenical Sunday within the Week of Prayer context. Each year when
the theme and texts for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are initially prepared,
the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute prepares the present resources
for the observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Common prayer for Christian
Unity dates back to 1840 when Ignatius Spencer, then an Anglican priest (who later
converted to Catholicism), along with John Henry Newman (who later became Cardinal
Newman), and Edward Pusey, also of the Anglican Church devised a plan for prayer of
unity and for unity. While some clergy used the prayer with their congregations,
the Anglican bishops mostly ignored the plan. In 1846, the Evangelical Alliance convened
and formulated a week of prayer for worldwide use in January of 1847. Pope Leo XIII,
in 1897, made his own effort in this area with a decree that ordered prayer from Ascension
to Pentecost (10 days) “for reconciliation with our separated brethren.” The idea
did not catch on among Catholics. Only after the Second Vatican Council, the Movement
gained momentum and today it is strengthened by the support of the Popes. There
have been several questions as to why this church unity octave be celebrated and why
there should be a separate week of prayer. Several answers have been given to this
question. There has been a common desire to communicate God's love to the entire world.
We have the mandate from God to accept that God's ultimate purpose is to unite all
things in Christ. Again it is a response in obedience to the prayer of Jesus Christ
"That all might be one" (John 17:21) and that "There might be one flock and one shepherd."
(John 10:16). It is the spirit of the church to acknowledge that Christ is the only
one who can reconcile all things and people, and that Christ's people must pray for
this reconciliation. Further a desire to show the Church as foretaste, instrument
and sign of the unity of God's Kingdom. Theologically and traditionally to accept
that the Christian Church can only be the Church that God intended if all churches
acknowledge their mutual interdependence. Today the Movement has received a positive
support from all Christian denominations, keeping in mind the mandate of Jesus that
all those who follow him become one. This unity is essential particularly in today’s
globalised world when more and more challenges come to us from other religions and
materialistic ideologies. In this context Cardinal Mercier says: “In order to unite
with one another, we must love one another; in order to love one another, we must
know one another; in order to know one another, we must go and meet one another.”
The Church Unity Octave is indeed a positive step in building up our faith and living
the call of Jesus Christ.