Information regarding the upcoming Ecumenical Prayer Service

Date, Time and Venue:
Friday, January 24, 2014
7 PM
Assumption College - Chapel of the Holy Spirit

• This year’s theme “Has Christ Been Divided?” reflects on St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians 1:1-17.

• The theme and the prayer service is adapted from the one jointly made by the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. A background from the WCC website:

• At least once a year, many Christians become aware of the great diversity of ways of adoring God. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbours' ways are not so strange…The event that touches off this special experience is something called the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Traditionally celebrated between 18-25 January (in the northern hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere), the Week of Prayer enters into congregations and parishes all over the world. Pulpits are exchanged, and special ecumenical celebrations and prayer services are arranged. Ecumenical partners in a particular region are asked to prepare a basic text on a biblical theme. Then an international group with WCC-sponsored (Protestant and Orthodox) and Roman Catholic participants edits this text and ensures that it is linked with the search for the unity of the church…The text is jointly published by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and WCC, through the WCC's Commission on Faith and Order, which also accompanies the entire production process of the text. The final material is sent to member churches and Roman Catholic dioceses, and they are invited to translate the text and contextualize it for their own use.

• There will be delegates from participating churches in the Worcester Area: Lutherans, Orthodox, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and others. The invitation is open…

• Bishop James Hazelwood of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutherans in America, will preach the homily this year. He will preside along with Bishop Robert McManus (Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester), His Eminence Metropolitan Methodius (Greek Orthodox Church of Boston) and Bishop Douglas Fisher (represented by Rev. Rich Simpson of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts).

• The Assumption College Chapel Choir will provide the music. Those who wish to join the choir for this event are welcome to attend the rehearsals.

• Donations offered during the service will be given to a beneficiary community in Worcester. (We are currently working out the possibility of having Worcester Fellowship as a beneficiary)

• This activity has now been a tradition in the Assumption College Community. President Francesco Cesareo made this initiative to reach out to various Christian Churches in the Worcester area to pray for Christian Unity.