As Christians from diverse traditions, we are celebrating the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with a special joint service with our regional ecumenical colleagues in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria and the BC Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The service was filmed both remotely and at Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican Church of Canada) in Victoria, BC.

Every year, Christians around the world are invited to celebrate a Week of Prayer for the unity of all Christians, to reflect on scripture together, to participate in jointly-organized ecumenical services, and to share fellowship.

The international resources for 2021 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity have been prepared by the Monastic Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland, a group of religious sisters from different church traditions brought together by a common vocation of prayer, community life and hospitality and by their commitment to Christian unity.

The 2021 theme

Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit (John 15:5-9) – calls us to pray and to work for reconciliation and unity in the church, with our human family, and with all of creation. Drawing on the Gospel image of vine and branches, it invites us to nourish unity with God and with one another through contemplative silence, prayer, and common action. Grafted into Christ the vine as many diverse branches, may we bear rich fruit and create new ways of living, with respect for and communion with all of creation.

About the Week

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (WPCU) was first proposed in 1908 as an observance within the Roman Catholic Church by Fr Paul Wattson, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in Graymoor, New York. Since the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948, many other Christian denominations
around the world have come to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In Canada, The Canadian Council of Churches and its ecumenical partners, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism and the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, work for ‘unity in diversity’ by supporting WPCU celebrations across Canada. For over
40 years, our Canadian ecumenical writing team has adapted WPCU materials developed by the World

Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity for the Canadian context.

Visit weekofprayer.ca for more information and to download resources.