2025 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - Worship Service

YOU ARE INVITED!

The Christian Council of the Capital Area invites you to join us for an in-person gathering to celebrate the visible unity within our Christian communities to be able to pray together.

For this year, 2025, the prayers and reflections for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were prepared by the brothers and sisters of the monastic community of Bose in northern Italy. This year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the first Christian Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea, near Constantinople in 325 AD. This commemoration provides a unique opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the common faith of Christians, as expressed in the Creed formulated during this Council; a faith that remains alive and fruitful in our days.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 offers an invitation to draw on this shared heritage and to enter more deeply into the faith that unites all Christians.

Speaker: Dr. Murray Watson

Date & Time: January 19th, 4 pm

Location: Ottawa Mennonite Church, 1830 Kilborn Avenue, Ottawa, ON, K1H 6N3

Parking is available on-site.

Donations will be directed towards a designated project chosen by the Ottawa Mennonite Church.

Please join us for a light reception after the prayer service for fellowship and conversations.

Dr. Murray Watson (SSL, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome; PhD, Trinity Collge, Dublin) is a Catholic Biblical scholar who has worked for more than 20 years in the field of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and education. He currently serves as the Adult Faith Formation Animator for the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, based in the city of Barrie, Ontario (Canada). In 2024, Murray published Restoring the Gospels' Jewish Voice. André Chouraqui and the Intersection of Biblical Translation and Interfaith Dialogue, available from Paulist Press.

More information:

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an annual ecumenical celebration. Christians around the world are invited to pray for the unity of all Christians, to reflect on scripture together, to participate in jointly organized ecumenical services, and to share fellowship.

In the northern hemisphere, the Week of Prayer traditionally takes place from 18 to 25 January, while in the southern hemisphere, where January is often a holiday period, churches often celebrate the Week of Prayer around Pentecost.

The theme of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 is based on a text from the Gospel of John: "Do you believe this?" (John 11:26). The prayers and reflections have been prepared by the brothers and sisters of the monastic community of Bose in northern Italy. As usual, an international team appointed jointly by the DPCU and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches worked with the authors to finalize the materials.

The year 2025 will mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council. This commemoration provides a unique opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the common faith of Christians as expressed in the Creed formulated at that Council. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 is an invitation to draw on this common heritage and to enter more deeply into the faith that unites all Christians.

The resources include an introduction to the theme, an ecumenical service, a selection of short readings and prayers for each day of the Week. Because of the ecumenical significance of the year 2025, short patristic texts, mostly from the first millennium, have also been included to give an insight into Christian reflection at that time and to help place the definitions of the Council of Nicea in the contexts in which they originated and were influenced. The resources can be used in a variety of ways and are intended for use not only during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but throughout the year 2025.

Host or Publisher Christian Council of the Capital Area