Annual service for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity set for Jan. 22
The Archdiocesan Commission for Christian Unity will hold the Annual Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on Sunday, Jan. 22 at Our Lady of the Visitation Church in Paramus.
Auxiliary Bishop Michael Saporito will be the presider at the 3 p.m. celebration of prayer, hymns, and readings.
The format and elements of the service are the work of collaboration of the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome. Its purpose is to bring together believers in Christ to pray for unity in order to strengthen our witness to him in our mission in the world with its many divisions. The focus of this year’s service is the words found in the prophet Isaiah: “Do good; seek justice.” (Is 1:17).
About the Week of Prayer
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began as an eight-day period of prayer called the Church Unity Octave at Graymoor, N.Y., the home of the Fransiscan Friars of the Atonement by the founders of that religious society, Mother Lurana White, S.A., and the Servant of God Father Paul Watson. It is usually observed today in the northern hemisphere Jan. 18-25, from the feast of the Confession of St. Peter in the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches today (formerly in the Roman calendar, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch) to the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and in other places in the world at another time (e.g., Pentecost).
It draws together in prayer around Christ’s plea to the Father “that all may be one … that the world may believe (John 17:20-21) many faithful from Christian denominations around the world. In Rome, the Pope customarily presides at an ecumenical service on Jan. 25 in the Basilica of St. Paul’s outside-the-walls each year.
This year’s theme
A passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah (1:12-18) was chosen with the key words “do good; seek justice” (v. 17) and entrusted to Christians drawn from the Minnesota Council of Churches for further development as the inspiration for this year’s service. The prophet’s words lament a lack of justice among the People of God. Yet it also promises redemption by encouraging acts of justice. Like Isaiah, the service aims at inspiring a new hope and a renewed desire and effort for justice among Christian peoples around the world, by hearing the Word of God and seeking the help of God’s grace.
The church is located at 234 North Fairview Ave.
