WCC News: Behind the scenes: preparing for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity invoked hope in a common faith

As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place from 18-25 January, Br Guido Dotti from the Monastic Community of Bose, Italy, reflects on what it was like to prepare the materials for the largest global prayer gathering.  Br Guido Dotti from the Monastic Community of Bose (Italy), member of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 resources drafting group. Photo: WCC 22 January 2025 Can you describe the work behind the prayers, how it felt to you? Br Guido: When the WCC and the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity asked our monastic community - composed of brothers and sisters from different Christian denominations (Roman Catholic, Reformed, Orthodox) - to prepare the materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity for this year, marked by the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council (Nicaea 325 CE), we decided all together to use a passage from the Gospel to John as the theme: "Do you believe this?” (John 11:26) and to focus the moments of prayer around the confession of faith that emerged from the First Ecumenical Council. Subsequently, several brothers and sisters thought of patristic texts from the first centuries, belonging to the different traditions of East and West, in order to show how the themes addressed at Nicaea were, on the one hand, the fruit of the generation of Christians emerging from persecution and, on the other hand, had shaped subsequent theological and spiritual thought. The discussion, in-depth study, and finalisation of the texts with the international commission during several days of work at the Monastery of Bose made it possible to live also in the preparation of the prayers the ancient adage that states that "what concerns all, by all must be discussed.” What is your hope for the worldwide use of the prayers?  Br Guido: When developing a text intended to help Christians of every language, people, and cultural tradition pray, the hope is that it can be a faithful echo of how the church hears and puts into practice the call of the Gospel in changing circumstances of time and place. The hope is that the words and thoughts that have emerged in a specific local reality will be able to express the common faith and animate the prayers of so many brothers and sisters spread across five continents. In what ways did you rediscover the past and the present with your work?  Br Guido: The aspect that struck me most in collaborating to produce these resources was to see how our fathers and mothers in the faith - only a dozen years after coming out of the great pit of persecution - decided to come together to try to be docile to the Lord's will in the new reality that was opening up before them: a reality of freedom in bearing witness to one's faith, but also of diversity of languages and cultures in which the Gospel had to be proclaimed and incarnated. Today, in our societies that are no longer Christian, we are faced with a similar challenge: to find the languages - that is, words, gestures and actions - most suitable for proclaiming the good news of the Gospel to our sisters and brothers in humanity. In fact, “Christ is the same yesterday, today, and always” (Hebrews 13:8), but the proclamation of his victory over death must “become all things to all people” (1 Corinthians 9:22) in order to reach every human being where they are, in their daily existence, in their living environment.  “Do you believe this?” Believing in the resurrection, today as yesterday, means believing that hatred is vanquished by love, death is vanquished by life, and being in our turn credible witnesses of this truth. Resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 Reading plan on the Youversion Bible app Learn more about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland