Pope Leo presides at Vespers for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
On Sunday 25 January 2025, Pope Leo XIV marked the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by presiding at Vespers for the Solemnity of the Conversion of St Paul at the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls. Representatives of many Christian churches and communities were present at the celebration. From among the Christian leaders present, Metropolitan Polykarpos of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy, representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and Bishop Anthony Ball, representing the Anglican Communion, joined the Holy Father for a moment of prayer at the tomb of St Paul before the liturgy. Among the groups present were students supported by the Committee for Cultural Collaboration with the Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and students from the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland.
The reflections and prayers for each year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are published jointly by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. The preparation of the texts for 2026 was entrusted by them to representatives of the Christian churches in Armenia, coordinated by the Inter-Church Relations Department of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The theme chosen by them for the Week of Prayer was “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling” (Eph 4,4). A passage from the Letter to the Ephesians, including this verse, was proclaimed during the liturgy by the Representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church to the Holy See, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian.
In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the repetition of the word ‘one’ in the passage - one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. He asked: “Dear brothers and sisters, how can these inspired words not touch us deeply? How can our hearts not burn within us when we hear them? Yes, ‘we share the same faith in the one and only God, the Father of all people; we confess together the one Lord and true Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the one Holy Spirit, who inspires us and impels us towards full unity and the common witness to the Gospel’ (cfr In Unitate Fidei §12). We are one! We already are! Let us recognize it, experience it and make it visible!” Looking forward to the 2,000th anniversary of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus in 2033, he underlined the ecumenical nature of the Church’s synodal journey called on all Christian churches to grow in the mutual knowledge of one another’s synodal practices and traditions, saying “let us commit ourselves to further developing ecumenical synodal practices and to sharing with one another who we are, what we do and what we teach”.