Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (WPCU) is an ecumenical celebration held each year from January 18-25. Christians around the world are invited to pray for the unity of all Christians, to reflect on scripture together, to participate in ecumenical services and to share fellowship.
—from weekofprayer.ca
Theme for 2023
Based on Isaiah 1:12-17, the theme for this year’s WPCU calls Christians to recognize that the divisions between our churches and confessions cannot be separated from the divisions within the wider human family.
Resources
Visit weekofprayer.ca for: planning or hosting ecumenical worship services (including a downloadable Order of Service); hymn suggestions; campus ministry suggestions; children’s activities; and, a Bible study resource.
Our dialogues and partnerships with other Christian churches
Full communion partnerships
In a full communion partnership, each church maintains its own autonomy, while fully recognizing the catholicity and apostolicity of the other.
We have been in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) since 2001, with an even longer history preceding the full communion partnership. The website “In Full Communion: Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada” showcases our ongoing work and relationship with the ELCIC.
“One Flock, One Shepherd: Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians — Called to Walk Together in Full Communion” provides information about the full communion declaration (between our church, the ELCIC and the Moravian Church in North America) which is anticipated to be voted on at Assembly 2023.
Dialogues
An ecumenical dialogue, as defined by the World Council of Churches Joint Working Group (1967), “concerns the Christian communions in their search for a more loyal vision of the Church’s mission to the world”. We are in dialogue with the following churches in Canada:
- Roman Catholic Church in Canada (Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops)
- United Church of Canada
- Mennonite Church Canada
Working for unity on a broader level
We are a founding member of the Canadian Council of Churches, an organization made up of more than 25 member churches, working to: respond to Christ’s call for unity and peace seek Christ’s truth with an affection for diversity; and act in love through prayer, dialogue and witness to the gospel.
Our Church is also a charter member of the World Council of Churches, a global fellowship of nearly 350 churches which is considered the privileged instrument of the worldwide ecumenical movement.
