The week of Prayer for Christian Unity is especially important across our diverse diocese. Chaplaincies and congregations work with our ecumenical sisters and brothers throughout the year, but this week in January is a special time to pray together based on the same God and faith that is worshipped across all denominations. 

Here are just a few examples of services and celebrations in this week, ranging from Tangier to Brussels, from Twente to Tenerife. 

At Holy Trinity, Brussels the service in January serves as the national service for Belgium, and included the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Mgr Luc Terlinden;  His Eminence the Metropolitan Athenagoras Belgium & Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg; Pasteure Isabelle Detavernier-Blommaert, the President of the United Protestant Church of Belgium, and many other representatives of the city's churches.  The preacher was Archpriest Athanasios Toparlakis, the Rector of the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Archangels in Brussels.

At St. Mary’s Anglican Church Twente, in the east of the Netherlands, we take part in two ecumenical services each year together with other local churches. These are in September, for the Week of Prayer for Peace (Vredesweek), and in January for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The churches we join with are the Dutch Protestant Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the local group of Arabic speaking churches. On 18^th January this year, we had a wonderful service to start the week of prayer for Christian unity. The readings were in Arabic, Dutch and English. We sang hymns with alternate verses in Dutch and English. We listened to a hymn sung in Arabic and to the Lord’s prayer sung in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. We said the psalm responsively with one half of the congregation saying a verse in English and the other half responding with the next verse in Dutch. The material for the service, made available by the World Council of Churches, was prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. The theme of the service was centered around Ephesians 4 and was about being one in the Sprit in the light of Christ. We had a full church and there was a wonderful atmosphere and feeling of being united as we worshipped together.

In Tangier the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity provides a wonderful opportunity for fellowship among the churches.  This year’s liturgy was prepared by the churches in Armenia for use around the world and in many languages on the theme “Light from light for light”. In Tangier the liturgy was celebrated at the cathedral in Spanish led by Archbishop Emilio Rocha Grande ofm with contributions in French including hymns and words of encouragement from both Anglican and Evangelical clergy.  May we be united as instruments of God’s love and peace in the world.

One Body, One Spirit, One Hope Diocese of Tangier

In Tenerife North, Mtr Fiona, the Church Wardens and Peter the Reader attended a joint service, as part of Christian Unity Week, hosted by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Tenerife. This was held in the Church of San Francisco in the old town of Puerto de la Cruz. We also met Fr. Perren and his wife the Locum Priest from the Chaplincy of South Tenerife accompanied by the Reader there Marisha. 

The service also included members of the German Lutheran and Finnish Christian communities in addition to the local Roman Catholic congregation.