Monday, 16 January 2017

Christian Unity Week

Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity: 18th—25th January. 
Symbol for Christian Unity
Currently we have cooperation between Catholic and Anglican Christians, but we are hoping that our central fraternal (a monthly meeting of clergy from different denominations Fr. Steve Pearson from the Cathedral, Fr. Phil Hudd, Christ Church and Revd. Chris Newlands, Lancaster Priory) will grow in the coming year to include clergy from other denominations. At this point it might be worth emphasising what Ecumenism is. Ecumenism does not say we are all the same, because clearly that is not the case. But Ecumenism says that we are together (the terms ecumenism and ecumenical come from the Greek word “Oikoumene” which means “coming together” or indeed it can mean “the whole world...the whole enterprise!”). 
Ecumenism isn't a fad! The work and process of Ecumenism is of the mind of Christ 
“Father may they all be one as I am in you and you are in me” John 17.v11. 
It’s never going to be convenient to follow ecumenical Christian life but praying together and working together where we can seems the best we can do. We have three events to mark this octave of prayer. Please make every effort to attend these gatherings. 
All of them are at 9.30am and all of them are a celebration of morning prayer. They will happen at the respective churches of the clergy involved, and they are:


The Octave ends on January 25th the feast of the conversion of St Paul.