Christian Unity Week

       Today begins a week of prayer for Christian Unity.  This annual observance began in 1908 in Graymoor, New York, by Father Paul Wattson, an Anglican Graymoor Friar of the Atonement, who persuaded the Anglican and Catholic bishops to support the efforts to pray that the division within the Church may begin to be addressed.  It was set in January, beginning on what was then celebrated on the 18th of January as the Feast of the Chair of Peter and ending on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on the 25th.

     Father Wattson and others from his community became Catholic the following year.  The annual observance spread, with Benedict XV extending observance to the entire Catholic community in 1916.  The World Council of Churches joined with the Vatican in promoting this effort since at least 1966.  Today it is celebrated through prayer and services of prayerful unity in many places, and in other places not at all.

     Why this week set aside for prayer?  The answer is found in the fact that Christ established the Church to be his body, strong and vibrant, the source of unity and of strength.  Through the frailty of human nature and a limited understanding of God's grace, we are a divided body, disabled by our disunity from witnessing as is needed in the world to the power of Christ.  That disability and limitation makes the work of the proclaiming and living the gospel much more difficult.  Jesus prayed for the Church that we may be one as he is one with the Father.

      There are many reasons for our disunity, but there are few excuses that really matter for that disunity to continue.  We need to work together, to pray together, to respect each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and give concrete witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Pray this week for that unity.  Pray for a mutual understanding and respect for each other.  Pray that "we may be one" in Christ.