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(CCCB)…The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be celebrated in Catholic parishes across Canada from 24 to 31 January, 2010.
Inaugurated in 1908 at the initiative of Rev. Paul Wattson, an Episcopalian priest of the United States who would later join the Catholic Church, the event is celebrated all around the world.
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in collaboration with the World Council of Churches, offers a resource for celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that includes readings and prayers for each of the eight days of the week inspired by the theme, "You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48).
This year’s theme was chosen by the Churches of Scotland to mark the hundredth anniversary of the 1910 Edinburgh Mission Conference on the theme “Witnessing to Christ Today”, an event largely hailed as the origin of modern ecumenism. “Divisions between Christians,” the gathered missionaries had noted, “not only weaken missionary effectiveness, but the Church and body of Christ and its mission.”
During the 2010 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the faithful of the Universal Church are instructed by the resource guide to revisit the Mission Conference’s theme and to reflect on the “appreciation of the resurrection of Christ as the source of ecclesial communion, of being sent out in mission, of the intrinsic link between mission and unity and, therefore, of the continual need to renew our commitment to Christian unity.”
The faithful are also invited to pray for unity among Christians during the course of the Week and year round.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is the national assembly of Catholic Bishops who have pastoral responsibility for 12.8 million Catholics across the country. The Conference provides ways for assisting the Bishops of Canada in their common pastoral responsibilities in different areas such as doctrine, ecumenical and interfaith relations, justice and peace issues, liturgy and catechesis. For further information visit: www.cccb.ca
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Dr. Glenn Byer is Director of the Publications Service of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. He holds a doctoral degree in liturgy from the Pontifical Institute of San’ Anselmo, Rome. A listing of resources to help dioceses and parishes prepare for the revised English-language edition of the Roman Missal for use in Canada is available on the website of the CCCB Publications Service, 
