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'With You is the Fountain of Life'Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - 2002The period beginning with January 18 and ending on January 25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, marks a privileged time for intense prayer for Christian unity. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been celebrated internationally since the 1960s. The 2002 theme is taken from Psalm 36:5-9 -- "With You is the Fountain of Life." The Joint Message announcing this annual worldwide ecumenical event introduces that theme in the following words: "We pray with the psalmist, 'How precious is your steadfast love, O God!... For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light' (Psalm 36: 7a, 9). We know this love of God given to us in our common faith in the one God, Father, Son and Spirit. It is the common bond which binds us together in the different churches to which we are committed. We recognize the triune God as the fountain of life and his Christ as the light of the world by the power of their Spirit. It is in the church that this fountain has come to us and this light has illuminated our lives as Christians." In 1993 the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism. The DAPNE notes that prayer in common with Christians of other churches and ecclesial communities can be "an effective means of petitioning for the grace of unity" and become "a genuine expression of the ties that still bind Catholics to these other Christians." (n.108) The Directory identifies such shared prayer as being "in itself a way to spiritual reconciliation." It recommends prayer in common specifically during the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity." In reference to the ecumenical nature of common prayer, the Directory reflects the original recommendations on the practice of ecumenism found in the Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Reintegratio, n.8) The Catechism of the Catholic Church incorporates the need for prayer as an integral component of the response to Christ's call for unity. Prayer, integrated with conversion of heart and holiness of life, is called " ‘spiritual ecumenism', 'the soul of the whole ecumenical movement.' "(CCC n. 821) In his encyclical Ut Unum Sint (That All May Be One, 1995), Pope John Paul II accorded a primacy to prayer in his teaching on the Catholic Church's commitment to ecumenism. (UUS nn. 212-27) The Holy Father notes that on the path to Christian unity "pride of place certainly belongs to common prayer, the prayerful union of those who gather around Christ himself." (UUS n. 22) A major ecumenical event on the American scene will also occur in Memphis, Tennessee, during the opening days of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. There, on the weekend of January 18-21, 2002, nine U.S. Protestant churches will enter a new ecclesial relationship. This new relationship among these communions will be named "Churches Uniting in Christ." The CUIC will be formed by the following churches: African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church USA, International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church. That three predominantly African-American denominations are part of this covenant is noteworthy. Their presence calls for a mission emphasis to counteract racism. The pursuit of racial justice stems from "what it means to be the body of Christ." Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the Consultation on Church Union, observes that " 'Uniting' is an operative word" in this context. Members of the Churches Uniting in Christ "are moving from a stage of cooperation into deeper commitment with an eye toward communion." Dr. Kinnamon asked for prayers for Churches Uniting in Christ both during and in the days after the Week of Prayer. He notes that "(e)ven churches not directly involved can rejoice in the sign of God's power to bring together those who have been estranged!" The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity focuses intensely on a constant dimension of the call to the ecumenical task. In this broader context, A People Made One, the 1999 pastoral letter of the Catholic bishops of Kentucky, invites Catholics to include Christian unity among intentions in personal and family prayers, as well as communal prayers and penitential practices.
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