With the arrival of a new year, we are given a chance to begin again, connected in God’s faithfulness and strengthened by hope for what lies ahead.
“Connected” feels like the perfect word to guide us into January, a month that holds particular significance for the Society of the Atonement. As most of you already know, each year from January 18-25 we observe the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an annual tradition celebrated across the globe. Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is very special to the Friars, because it was started here at Graymoor by our founders, Servant of God Father Paul Wattson, SA, and Mother Lurana White, SA.
The idea for Week of Prayer first took shape in 1907, when Father Paul corresponded with Rev. Spencer Jones of England, who suggested dedicating a single day to pray for Christian unity. Father Paul embraced the idea, but felt called to something even greater: an octave of eight days, during which all Christians could join in prayer for unity, echoing Christ’s words on the night before He died:
“That all may be one, as You are in Me and I in You; that the world may believe it was You who sent Me.”
A year later in 1908, Father Paul and Mother Lurana initiated the first “Church Unity Octave,” beginning on January 18, the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter, and ending on January 25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Pope Pius X soon recognized the observance, and in 1916, Pope Benedict XV extended it to the entire Church. In the 1960s, both the Vatican and the World Council of Churches jointly endorsed it as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
What Father Paul and Mother Lurana started was truly remarkable. At a time when Methodists rarely spoke to Episcopalians, Episcopalians seldom to Lutherans, Lutherans to Baptists, and Roman Catholics to almost no one, our founders dared to proclaim: “We are all followers of Christ.” Father Paul could have only been inspired by God, because Christian unity was not at the forefront of anyone’s mind.
We may not yet know what shape the unity Christ desires will ultimately take, but we do know this: our present divisions cannot be His will. For Jesus, human lines of separation were illusions – barriers He crossed as easily as we step over lines on a sidewalk.
This year’s theme for the Week of Prayer comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, verse 4: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.”
As the Friars have done for more than a century, we once again sponsor this sacred week and invite all Christians to join us in prayer. With persistent, fervent prayer, we can draw closer to the unity Christ longed for, and perhaps one day see Jesus’ prayer fulfilled:
“That they all may be one.”