Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Jan. 18-25

Resources from Graymoor here. Suggestions from Canon Maria Tjeltveit below.

What are you doing for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25)? Here are some suggestions:
Although it is too late to get printed materials from the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute, there are some good materials to download on their website www.geii.org/wpcu_index.htm including prayers of the people, sermon ideas, and information about this year’s theme, “You Are Witnesses of These Things.”

If you are in the Scranton area, there is a service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, on Wednesday, January 20, at 10:30 a.m., at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, 300 Wyoming Avenue, Scranton. The Most Rev. John M. Dougherty, Former Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Scranton will preside. The Rev. Dr. Barbara Smith, newly installed General Presbyter of the Presbytery of Lackawanna, will preach. I will be vested to represent the Diocese of Bethlehem, and would love to see some fellow Episcopalians.

If you are in Lehigh County, the Lehigh County Conference of Churches is having a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service, on Sunday, January 31, at 3:00, at St. John’s UCC, 139 North 4th Street, Emmaus. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and an ordained Assemblies of God minister, is the preacher. The service will feature a youth choir made up of youth from many different congregations. A time of fellowship follows the service.  

This year the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins on the Martin Luther King holiday. Find a Martin Luther King Day service near you, and celebrate the ecumenical spirit of King’s ministry that continues to this day.  

Spend part of the week planning an ecumenical series for Lent in partnership with a Moravian, Lutheran, or United Methodist church, based on the “Getting to Know You” format that gathers congregations for worship and learning about each other’s history, theology, and polity. E-mail me to get a copy of “Getting to Know You”.

If you know of opportunities to celebrate Christian Unity in other parts of the diocese, please share them with others by asking Bill to post them here. If I can be helpful in planning an ecumenical event now, or in the future, please contact me at [email protected]  

The Rev. Canon Maria Tjeltveit, Ecumenical and Interfaith Officer