Christian Churches of Ukraine for the third time will join the world Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The week of Prayer for Christian Unity starts on January 19. Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants will pray together. Prayers will take place daily in churches of different confessions, where brothers from other Churches are invited. This world practice is celebrating now its 41st year, and it was initiated by the World Council of Churches together with the Catholic Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In Ukraine the Week of Prayer will take place for the third time. As RISU correspondent Svitlana Yaroshenko reports, prayers will take place with the participation of: bishops and clergy of the UOC (MP), UOC-KP, UAOC, UGCC, RCC, bishops and pastors of protestant Churches and communities, and the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Ivan Jurkovic. The main idea of the Week of Prayer for Unity is to induce Christians to closer relations and joint witnessing: witnessing unity, mutual respect and cooperation. The theme of the present Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are the words of the prophet Ezekiel: «That they may become one in your hand!” The UGCC is the curator of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Ihor Shaban, doctor of ecumenical theology and head of the Commission of the UGCC for Promoting Christian Unity, talks about the effect of joint prayers: «I say sincerely that we do not expect some extraordinary decisions, extraordinary events, or some extraordinary final results from this. The only thing we want is that people learn to pray together, to be with each other and to be friends. That they learn to see in another Christian not only some threat but to see in him another Christian. That they learn tolerance, foremost, and this already will be the first step to the dialogue which our Church supports. And, on the way to unity, this prayer is an auxiliary element.» The program of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will include prayer services in the following churches of Kyiv:  on January 19, the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God (UGCC), Mykil'sko-Slobidska St, 5,
on January 20, the Church of the Protection (UOC-KP), Ostrovskoho St, 20,
on January 21, the Philadelphia Church (CCFEU), Holosiivska St, 57,
on January 22, the Church of St. Feodosiy of Chernihiv (UOC MP), Chernobyl'ska St, 2,
on January 23, the Church of Saint Andrew the First-called (UAOC), Uzviz Andrijivskyj, 23,
on January 24, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Institute of Religious Studies (RCC), Yakirna St, 13,
on January 25, the Church of Saint Basil the Great (UGCC), Voznesens’kyj Uzviz, 7. The World Council of Churches did not select January 18–25 to conduct the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by accident. This week, according to the Gregorian calendar, is completed exactly on the Feast of the Conversion of the Apostle Paul, which Europe traditionally celebrates on January 25. The symbolism of this holiday is very bright: on this day on the way to Damascus a persecutor of the disciples of Christ, Paul, saw Christ and heard His voice. The wonderful conversion of this man who became the apostle of the nations, devoted to the Gospel and Christ, took place. www.risu.org.ua/ukr/news/article;26825/

Information Department of the UGCC