The Archbishop’s Lecture Series welcomes Eric Metaxas to speak in Bonfils Hall on January 18, 2011 at 7pm. Mr. Metaxas is the author of the 2010 book, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy,” which will be the subject of his talk.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as you know, was a Lutheran pastor and theologian put to death by the Nazis for his participation in the German resistance during the Second World War.
 
This talk will also mark the beginning of the 103rd anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
 
In 1919 Pope Benedict XV encouraged observance of the Octave universally through the Roman Catholic Church.  The materials used in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are prepared each year jointly by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.  It is celebrated over the eight days of January 18-25.
 
The theme for the 2011 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is “One in the Apostles’ Teaching, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread and Prayer.” It comes from Acts Chapter 2 versus 42.  For 2011, the churches in Jerusalem were the initial consultants to the Joint Working Group for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.   Parish resources, including an order of worship, can be found linked at the USCCB Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and at the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute - Read more.

Catholics have always seen Christian unity as inseparable from the Holy Eucharist.  “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread”  (1 Corinthians 10:17).  In the New Testament the Eucharistic unity of the Church is an entirely public and visible bond witnessing the love of Christ.  The love on display in the Church’s Eucharist is, in fact, the means by which the world is to believe the gospel and come to know our Lord and Savior (cf. John 13:35). 

Bishops in the early Church understood that a failure of love leading to separate and competing Eucharists threatened the very witness of the Church.  Clement of Rome wrote to the church at Corinth around the end of the first century: “Why are there strife and passion, schisms and even war among you? Do we not possess the same Spirit of grace that was given to us and the same calling in Christ? Why do we tear apart and divide the body of Christ? Why do we revolt against our own body? Why do we reach such a degree of insanity that we forget that we are members one of another? . . . Your division has led many astray, has made many doubt, has made many despair, and has brought grief upon us all.”

Three years ago the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released the “Doctrinal Note on some Aspects of Evangelization.”   Here is an important sentence:  “Unity, in fact, is the seal of the credibility of missionary activity and so the Second Vatican Council noted with regret that the scandal of division ‘damages the most sacred cause of preaching.’"  A Church of separate and competing Eucharists simply cannot reveal the gospel of the resurrection to the world with sure-footed believability.  In a divided Church, the power of this gospel becomes veiled, not only from the world, but also in itself. 

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we are invited to trust in the power of prayer offered in the presence of Jesus.  There is nothing noticeably grand in the simple gesture of prayer. Yet it will always do more to maintain the cohesion of the Church than so many opposite gestures which dig away at her cohesion.
 

Phil A. Webb Jr.
Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs Officer