Addendum: This topic has been made an ongoing series. Ignore the dates and deadlines below.

WEEK OF PRAYER

FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2018

January 18 to 25

The annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins in two weeks. The World Council of Churches has posted this year’s information here, and the Canadian Council of Churches here. Other countries around the world undoubtedly have their own website for this event.

But what is “Christian unity” anyway? Do we have it already, in whole or in part? What does it look like, or what will it look like when we have it? Aside from praying for it once a year, what concrete steps or mechanisms will bring Christian unity to fruition?

What is “ecumenism?” What are its practices and its goals? 

What is “the Church,” for that matter? What is the content of our “good news?”

From now until January 31 Orthodoxy in Dialogue is accepting articles responding to these questions from writers who belong to every Christian church, denomination, or faith community. Our purpose is to have a dialogue in which everyone has his or her say, in his or her own voice.

Submissions for this Series must adhere to a strict limit of no more than 1200 words. No exceptions. It is your responsibility to check our Submission Guidelines for general requirements. Editors are not fond of questions that are already clearly answered in our Guidelines.

We welcome submissions from more than one member of each church or denomination. However,  check the Christian Unity section near the top of our Archives by Author page to ensure that you do not write a duplicate or near duplicate of something that we have already published. There are several possible ways to approach the question of Christian unity and ecumenism, even from within the same tradition.