VATICAN CITY, JULY 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See has published on the Internet the texts for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, to be held next Jan. 18-25.
The theme for the week will be “Where Two or Three Are Gathered in My Name, I Am There Among Them.”
The texts have been jointly prepared and published by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches.
The introduction to the texts explains that they are “an invitation to find opportunities throughout the whole year to express the degree of communion which the Churches have already received, and to pray together for that full unity which is Christ’s will.”
“There is more that unites us than divides us — this is the great discovery that lies behind the thrust of the ecumenical movement,” it says.
“The greatest uniting point of all is the presence of the Risen Christ who promised his disciples he would be with them till the end of time,” it adds.
The initial draft of this material was prepared by an ecumenical group in Dublin, Ireland, made up of Orthodox, Coptic-Orthodox, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Lutherans and the Church of Ireland.
The material reached its present form at a meeting of an international preparatory group, held at a Focolare center in County Kildare, Ireland.
The texts are posted at www.vatican.va.
