permanent diaconate

Area Churches to Mark Week of Christian Unity

HERALD Staff Report
(From the Issue of 1/18/07)

Leaders of area Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic and United Methodist churches will celebrate the National Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with an ecumenical prayer service on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington. A reception will follow the prayer service.
The Rt. Rev. David C. Jones, Suffragen Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia; the Rev. Charlene P. Kammerer, Resident Bishop of the Virginia Conference, United Methodist Church; Bishop Paul S. Loverde of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington; the Bishop Theodore E. Schneider of the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America invite local members of all Christian churches to join them for this service.
The Rev. Tom Joyce, assistant to the bishop in the Virginia Methodist Conference and president of the Virginia Council of Churches, will preach. The theme and scripture for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2007 is “Open Our Ears and Loosen Our Tongues.”
The theme and text for each year's observance of the Week of Prayer are chosen and prepared by representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of the World Council of Churches. The international texts are developed, adapted and published for use in the USA by the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. The traditional date for the Week is Jan. 18-25.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was initiated in 1908 by the Father Paul Wattson, co-founder of the Society of the Atonement.