Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an eight-day observance kept every year from January 18 through January 25. It is not a single feast day. Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and other Christians pray that the Church may be one, as Christ asked the Father in the Gospel of John.

The dates are stable. January 18 recalls the older feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and January 25 is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Together they hold the week between the apostle who confirmed the brethren and the apostle sent to the nations. The theme and worship materials change from year to year. They are prepared jointly by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order.

The modern octave grew from the work of Fr. Paul Wattson and the Society of the Atonement in the early twentieth century, and from the later spiritual renewal led by Abbé Paul Couturier, who asked Christians to pray for the unity Christ wills, by the means he wills. The Second Vatican Council placed this prayer inside the Catholic Church’s permanent task: the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio treats the restoration of unity among all Christians as one of the Council’s principal concerns.

The week does not ask Catholics to blur doctrine. It asks them to repent of sins against unity, to know other Christians truthfully, and to pray Christ’s own prayer. Local churches often hold an ecumenical service, a shared Scripture reading, or a Mass with an intention for unity.