January 18-25 was the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This annual event utilized resources sponsored jointly by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity of the Roman Catholic Church. This year’s theme was selected by a group of Christian leaders from Jerusalem and is based on Acts 2:42: “One in the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. ”
The Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches preached a sermon at the Chapel of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva this past Sunday in which he issued the following challenge:
For the first Christians, individual possessions were a block to being one. Our contexts today are of course very different, yet surely, as we seek the unity of Christianity and the unity of humanity, we also need to ask what do we need to let go of, to be one …
What possessions, what power, what wealth but also what enmities, prejudices and hatreds do we need to let go of?
So What?
What do you need to let go of in order to enable the possibility of Christian unity? Are you willing to do so?
On the congregational level, what does your parish need to let go of in order to enable the possibility of Christian unity? As a community of faith, are you willing to do so?