2025 Sun Jan 26

Traditionally the week of prayer is celebrated between 18-25 January, between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul.

Check out the event website. The guiding biblical text for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 comes from John 11:17-27. The theme for the week, “Do you believe this?” (v. 26), takes its cue from the dialogue between Jesus and Martha when Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany following the death of their brother Lazarus.

At least once a year, Christians are reminded of Jesus’ prayer for his disciples that “they may be one so that the world may believe” (see John 17.21). Hearts are touched and Christians come together to pray for their unity. Congregations and parishes all over the world exchange preachers or arrange special ecumenical celebrations and prayer services. The event that touches off this special experience is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

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.

I. Theme – The power given us through God’s love and presence. 

Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth" ” – James Tissot (1886-1894) 

"When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way." – Luke 4:28-30

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm – Psalm 71:1-6
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Gospel – Luke 4:21-30     

Today’s readings reveal the power given us through God’s love and presence. Jeremiah protests his call to prophesy, but God commands him to speak boldly. Paul teaches a quarreling community that, while all the spiritual gifts have value, respect and love for each other deeply empower us. Jesus proclaims that the power of his ministry will not be confined to his hometown or even to his faith community.

The two major themes in this week’s reading stand out in clear relief: Firstly, God’s grace is not always a comfortable and gentle thing to experience. Integral to God’s grace is the work of justice which distresses the comfortable and self-assured (the "no") even as it comforts the distressed (the "yes"). Jeremiah is told that his message will not only build up but break down; The psalmist reflects on his vulnerability and the threat of evil in spite of his long life of relationship with God; The love that Paul speaks about is not an easy or comfortable way to follow, but challenges our self-centredness and lethargy toward others; and finally, Jesus makes it clear that his ministry is not “friendly” and non-disruptive, but a life-changing, all-inclusive confrontation of self-righteousness and injustice

Secondly, as with Jesus’ near execution in Luke, those who choose to follow Christ in his liberating work, must expect that they will find themselves in confrontation with injustice and those who propagate it. This will inevitably lead to great sacrifice and suffering. The work of grace is not all acceptance and healing. Sometimes it is a wounding battle – not least because we are called to love even those we challenge

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