Week of Prayer for Christian Unity




This year we are unable to meet together face to face for the Week of Prayer, here are the YouTube links for the resources created for use of the Churches Together of North Watford & Garston.


Local Ecumenical Celebration

Our joint service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is a pre-recorded video and available via YouTube. It is shaped by three sections, called ‘vigils’, which follow a pattern used by the community of Grandchamp who produced this year's national resources.

Each vigil follows the same pattern: readings from scripture; a sung response; a time of silence; and intercessions. Each vigil also has an action reflecting its theme. Each ends with the singing of Light of God (Lumière de Dieu), composed by a member of the community of Grandchamp. 

Come to this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and enter into a place of community and blessing. Simply “be” in this place and be carried by the prayer and the reality that it is God, in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, who carries us and accompanies us. always. 

Here is the YouTube link for this service…

https://youtu.be/XF5jN6Ggil4 

National Resources

When the sisters of the Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland were invited to produce the material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity for 2021 they could not have foreseen the pandemic and its impact. Yet the Sisters of Grandchamp have offered something uniquely precious: an opportunity to engage with a form of prayer that is both very ancient and yet at the same time so apposite for our times. The ancient rhythm of prayer found in many religious orders and their traditions teach us that when we pray, we pray not just on our own or with those who share the same physical space, but with the whole Church, the Body of Christ.

This rhythm of prayer, with its traditional forms of structure, hymns and psalms and perhaps most importantly, silence, might well be an important gift from the ancient Church to the Church of today struggling with pandemics and lockdowns and more widely with some of the serious challenges that our world faces, most particularly climate change, racism and poverty. This tradition of prayer and spirituality, despite the things that hurt and separate us, invites us into shared prayer and silence together. Surely a most precious gift in troubled times.

Bob Fyffe, General Secretary, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

A booklet of daily reflections for personal use has been put together and along with that a series of short videos have been created to go alongside these to give a graphic version of the reflection. The links for these are all given below.