Cardinal Tobin presides over Ecumenical Prayer Service held at St. Helen’s Church in Westfield

St. Helen’s Church in Westfield was the site for this year’s ecumenical prayer service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on Sunday, Jan. 21. 

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 18-25, is an annual ecumenical celebration when Christians around the world are invited to pray for the unity of all Christians, to reflect on scripture together, to participate in jointly organized ecumenical services, and to share fellowship.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, presided over the service, joined by Msgr. Thomas Nydegger, pastor of St. Helen’s; two priests of the Episcopal Church, Rev. Lynn Weber (diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious officer) and Rev. Diana Wilcox (rector of Christ Church in Glen Ridge); and Rev. Steve Huston of the Presbytery of Northeast New Jersey. The sermon was preached by the Baptist Rev. Dr. Forrest Pritchett of Seton Hall University. Music was composed and played by Adrian Soltys, the parish director of worship. The service was organized by the Archdiocesan Commission for Christian Unity, and its chair, Father Luke Edelen OSB, thanked all those attending as well as the participants.

The theme of this year’s Week of Prayer is Jesus’ teaching in Luke 10:27: “You shall love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself.” The theme was chosen by Christian communities in Burkina Faso, and it reflects the connection between the love of God and the love of neighbor with a particular concern for challenging the boundaries of who is considered “neighbor”. 

The service began with the African custom of welcoming guests with a refreshing drink of water from a large calabash and then inviting them in to rest from their journey. Cardinal Tobin poured cups of water and distributed them to those present, and then led them into the body of the church. There followed a litany of praise to God for His gifts to us, followed by a litany of repentance, recalling the many ways in which we individually and communally have turned away from God and from our neighbor.

The first scripture reading was the story of Abraham being visited by three angels and his hospitality to them (Genesis 18:1-8), followed by a responsorial psalm. The Gospel reading was from Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan, with Jesus’ trenchant question to us. “Who was the neighbor to the man?”, if the commandment is to love the Lord God…and our neighbor. Dr. Pritchett’s sermon reflected on ways in which we in our time need to look at our failures to love and respect people we should be treating as our neighbors.

After the homily, the congregation recited St Paul’s affirmation of love from I Corinthians 13, and then joined in prayer that we may better work together as neighbors to those around us, the better to love the Lord and our neighbors. The service concluded with a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. 

At the end of the service, a free-will offering was taken for the support of the food pantry of St.Joseph’s Social Service Center in Elizabethport. 

After the service, everyone retired to the parish hall for refreshments and conversation, getting to know each other better.

Dr. Peter Ahr is a member of the Commission for Christian Unity and Emeritus Professor of Religion at Seton Hall University.