Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Diocesan Press Service. November 10, 1965 [XXXVII-5]
As the quest for Christian unity widens across the breadth of the earth, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglicans on all continents will again join in prayer during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18-25.
This year, for the first time in the United States, there will be a common leaflet for use in all communions. It is sponsored by the World Council of Churches' Commission of Faith and Order, the National Council of Churches' Department of Faith and Order, and is recommended by the Bishops' Commission for Ecumenical Affairs, a commission of the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States.
"In preparing this year's text, Roman Catholics have had the privilege of collaborating with the Department of Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches," said the Very Rev. Msgr. William A. Baum, executive director of the Bishops' Commission for Ecumenical Affairs.
"In the light of the Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council, which summons Roman Catholics not only to engage in dialogue and in common witness with Christians of other Churches, but also to pray for the cause of Christian unity, the observance of the Week of Prayer has taken on a new and deeper significance. This leaflet is an admirable means for the fulfillment of the purposes of the Council document, and it is hoped that it will be widely used by Roman Catholics as they pray among themselves and with their fellow Christians."
"The differences between Christians on questions of the faith are deep and resistant to solution," said the Rev. William A. Norgren, executive director of the Department of Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches. "Precisely because this is so, Christians need to pray to their common Lord Jesus Christ to show them the way to the unity He wills."
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is sponsored each year by the Commission of Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Association for Christian Unity in Lyon, France. The Department of Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches co-sponsors the observance in the United States.
"I Will Be Their God, And They Shall Be My People" is the theme of the 1966 observance. The leaflet is available from the World Council of Churches, Room 439, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, New York 10027, at $2.50 per hundred or $2.00 per hundred for a thousand or more. The poster is available for $. 20. These materials are also available for the first time from the Unity Office, Graymoor, Garrison, New York 10524,