In Jerusalem, the term “ecumenism” has an everyday flavour, sometimes it tastes sweet and sometimes bitter, but it is never bland. These are the words that can summarize the thoughts of those who are spending this week of Christian Unity in Jerusalem, a week which opened on Saturday, when Catholics and protestants attended the “compline”, the celebration of the “Apodeipnon” of the Greek Orthodox on the place of the Calvary, one week later than the rest of the world to wait for the last epiphany of the Holy Land, celebrated by the Armenian Orthodox.
This year it was the “Mother Church” of Jerusalem that prepared the theme of the Week of Christian Unity, choosing the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that refers to the origins of the Community of Jerusalem where the first Christians lived: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal live, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2,42).
In presenting the 2011 Christian Unity Week, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity together with the World Council of Churches underline the peculiarity of Jerusalem: “The current community experiences many of the joys and sorrows of the early church; its injustice and inequality, and its divisions, but also its faithful perseverance, and recognition of a wider unity among Christians. The churches in Jerusalem today offer us a vision of what it means to strive for unity, even amid great problems. They show us that the call to unity can be more than mere words, and indeed that it can point us toward a future where we anticipate and help build the heavenly Jerusalem.”
The desire for unity was strongly felt yesterday at the Greek-Melkite Catholics, in their cosy church of the Annunciation, almost next door to the Latin Patriarchate, which for the occasion was packed with the faithful of the different rites. Prayer, in the Byzantine tradition and mainly in Arabic, was presided by the Melkite Patriarchal Vicar General, the Most Reverend Youssef Jules Zerey, in the presence of the representatives of the other churches, and was followed by a convivial moment of refreshments, invaluable to fraternize and exchange a few words.
The ecumenical services will continue throughout the week, hosted by the Armenian Orthodox, Lutheran, Latin Catholic, Syro-Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox and Anglican churches. The Franciscans of the Custody, representing the Latin Catholic rite, will host prayers on Wednesday at the parish church of St. Saviour and on Thursday at the Cenacle, which is exceptionally granted for the liturgy only three times a year.
The Jerusalem which in this week appears in all its variety of majority and minority Churches, strives tirelessly to be the place where unity can be built up!
E.C.
This year it was the “Mother Church” of Jerusalem that prepared the theme of the Week of Christian Unity, choosing the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that refers to the origins of the Community of Jerusalem where the first Christians lived: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal live, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2,42).
In presenting the 2011 Christian Unity Week, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity together with the World Council of Churches underline the peculiarity of Jerusalem: “The current community experiences many of the joys and sorrows of the early church; its injustice and inequality, and its divisions, but also its faithful perseverance, and recognition of a wider unity among Christians. The churches in Jerusalem today offer us a vision of what it means to strive for unity, even amid great problems. They show us that the call to unity can be more than mere words, and indeed that it can point us toward a future where we anticipate and help build the heavenly Jerusalem.”
The desire for unity was strongly felt yesterday at the Greek-Melkite Catholics, in their cosy church of the Annunciation, almost next door to the Latin Patriarchate, which for the occasion was packed with the faithful of the different rites. Prayer, in the Byzantine tradition and mainly in Arabic, was presided by the Melkite Patriarchal Vicar General, the Most Reverend Youssef Jules Zerey, in the presence of the representatives of the other churches, and was followed by a convivial moment of refreshments, invaluable to fraternize and exchange a few words.
The ecumenical services will continue throughout the week, hosted by the Armenian Orthodox, Lutheran, Latin Catholic, Syro-Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox and Anglican churches. The Franciscans of the Custody, representing the Latin Catholic rite, will host prayers on Wednesday at the parish church of St. Saviour and on Thursday at the Cenacle, which is exceptionally granted for the liturgy only three times a year.
The Jerusalem which in this week appears in all its variety of majority and minority Churches, strives tirelessly to be the place where unity can be built up!
E.C.