Preparation of Materials for 2028 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

The international editorial group jointly sponsored by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) gathered in Boynton Beach, Florida, in the USA, from 23 to 28 August, to finalise the texts for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2028. The preparation of the materials had been entrusted to a group of Christians from Cuba, including staff and students of the Protestant Seminario Evangélico de Teología in the city of Matanzas, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, and clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Matanzas.

Because of the current situation in Cuba, the editorial group did not travel to Matanzas. The meeting took place instead at St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, which forms clergy for all the Catholic dioceses in the state of Florida. The editorial group is very grateful to the Rector and seminary community for their hospitality during the meeting. Three members of the drafting team were able to travel from Cuba to join the editorial group in the work of finalising the texts.

Shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and other necessities have touched almost the entire population in Cuba. However, Christians from different traditions have found ways of responding together to the needs of their neighbours, discovering in doing so that the search for Christian unity is never separated from the realities of human life. What appears insufficient can become a source of blessing when it is offered in faith and shared in love. For this reason, the Cuban drafters chose a line from the account of the multiplication of the loaves and fish in St Mark’s Gospel as the theme for the 2028 Week of Prayer: “You give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).

The meeting was chaired jointly by the World Council of Churches programme executive for Spiritual Life and for Faith and Order, Revd Dr Mikie Roberts and Fr Martin Browne OSB, official of the Western Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. The resources produced during this meeting will be translated and published after the 2027 observances of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – 18 to 25 January in the Northern Hemisphere and around the Feast of Pentecost in the Southern Hemisphere.

The previous meeting of the international group, to finalise the prayers and reflections for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2027, took place from 31 August to 5 September 2025, at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in Ireland.