Christian Unity
During the month of January, we pray in a special way for
the unity of Christians.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began to take
definite shape at the beginning of the last century. In 1908, Paul Wattson
(1863-1940), an American Episcopalian priest, proposed an octave of prayer
between January 18 and January 25 (the feast of Peter, according to the old
calendar, and the feast of the conversion of St. Paul). For Wattson, the focus
of prayer was the return of the separated Churches to Rome. (Wattson himself,
with the monastic community he founded, entered the Catholic Church in 1909.)
In the 1930s, another pioneer for ecumenism, Catholic priest Paul Couturier of
Lyons, France, realized that for the Week of Prayer to have a real impact,
Catholics and non-Catholics needed to pray for unity together: and that meant a
shift in focus. Non-Catholics could hardly be expected to pray that they would
eventually become Catholic! Father Couturier suggested that the prayer be for
the “unity that Christ wills, as he wills, and when he wills.” It was a
controversial move at the time. But the movement caught on, and received formal
sanction by Pope John XXIII in 1959.
The Second Vatican Council gave a huge impetus to the
ecumenical movement. In 1965, the year the Council closed, the Vatican’s
Secretariat for Christian Unity met with the World Council of Churches, and for
the first time they prepared joint materials for the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity. Each year, Catholic and non-Catholic Christians prepare a
document which includes suggestions for prayer services, Bible study, and
discussion. In their document for this year, 2006, they write: “There is more
that unites us than divides us—this is the great discovery that lies behind the
thrust of the ecumenical movement. 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.”
For Catholics, the unity of all Christian believers is
more than just one more dream; it is central to the Church’s mission. Pope
Benedict XVI said in his first public address to the Cardinals who had elected
him: “Peter's current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work
tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This
is his ambition, his impelling duty. He is aware that good intentions do not
suffice for this. Concrete gestures that enter hearts and stir consciences are
essential, inspiring in everyone that inner conversion that is the prerequisite
for all ecumenical progress.”
Why is unity so important? Because unity is what Jesus
wants for his followers; it is what Jesus prayed for on the last night of his
life: “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me
through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I
in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent
me” (John 17: 20-21).
The Parable of Taizé
Brother Roger of Taizé was for more than fifty years one
of the leading figures in the ecumenical movement. He did more than talk about
Christian unity; through the community he established, he lived it.
Brother Roger’s ecumenical mission was inspired by his
grandmother. A Swiss Protestant, she had lived through World War I, and had been
heartbroken to see Christians killing Christians. After the war, though she
remained a Protestant, she began going to the Catholic church in her
neighborhood to pray, in a silent but powerful gesture of unity which had a
profound impact on her grandson. In 1940, as another war was beginning, Brother
Roger moved to the tiny village of Taizé in France’s Burgundy region. There,
during the war years, he sheltered political refugees, especially Jewish people,
and began to develop the idea of an ecumenical community in which men from many
different traditions—Catholic, Orthodox, Protestants—would live together under
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Brother Roger’s dream became a reality
on Easter Sunday, 1949, when the first few brothers, all Protestants, took their
vows. Eventually, they were joined by Catholic brothers; today the brothers come
from many different Christian traditions and from many different countries.
The mission of the Taizé community is not simply the unity
of Christians; they work and pray towards solidarity with outsiders of all
kinds, especially those living in extremes of poverty, hunger, or disease.
Brother Roger himself traveled all over the world, spending time among the poor
in Calcutta, South Africa, Lebanon, Haiti, Madras, Ethiopia, the Philippines, as
well as the United States.
Brother Roger hoped that his community would be “a parable
of communion,” a living example of how Christians might live together in mutual
understanding and respect. As Cardinal Walter Kasper said in his homily at
Brother Roger’s funeral: “By his presence, his words and his example, Brother
Roger caused love and hope to shine around him, far beyond the barriers and the
divisions of this world. A man of communion, he nourished in his heart and in
his prayer a deep desire for reconciliation and encounter. With the Brothers of
the Taizé community, he wanted to place a ferment of unity in the Church and in
the world.”
Ecumenical Prayer at St. James Cathedral
An ecumenical prayer service is held every Friday evening
at 6:30pm in the Cathedral. The service is based on the prayer of the Taizé
community in France. It is a meditative prayer. Words are kept to a minimum
(Brother Roger did not think too many words ought to be spoken in church!): the
chants are simple and easy to learn. Most often they consist of a single, simple
phrase, repeated over and over. There is much time for reflection and silence.
Candlelight and icons create an atmosphere quite different from any other prayer
we do at St. James Cathedral. The prayer lasts just over a half an hour. If you
haven’t been before—or if you haven’t been in a while—wouldn’t this YEAR OF
PRAYER AND RENEWAL would be the perfect time to come back?
A special Taizé prayer for Christian Unity will be held
at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Friday, January 27
at 6:30pm. Leaders of many local Christian congregations will participate.
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