A 40-page document is available from the World Council of Churches [PDF] for celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on Jan. 18-25.
 
The document is prepared and published jointly by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order.
 
The Pontifical Council has made the same material available on its website, but has asked Roman Catholics to “contact the Ecumenical Commission of your Bishops’ Conference or the Synod in your country in order to obtain a copy of the text adapted for your local context.”
 
The theme of this year’s celebration is “You Are Witnesses of These Things,” which is based on the words of the resurrected Christ to his disciples (Luke 24:48).
 
Mr. Andrew Barr of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and other Scottish Christians, helped prepare the initial texts for the celebrations.
 
This year’s material commemorates the Edinburgh Mission Conference of 1910.
 
“The official delegates of Protestant mission societies from the different branches of Protestantism and Anglicanism, joined by an Orthodox guest, met during the summer of 1910 in the Scottish capital,” said a background article in the document. “In 1910 the Scottish ecclesial landscape was beginning to diversify and the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches once more enjoyed a more important role. Edinburgh was chosen as the place for the meeting because of its intellectual and cultural vitality. The fame of its theologians and church leaders also encouraged this choice. Scottish Protestant churches were also particularly active in mission and had a reputation for paying attention to local cultures.”
 
A centenary conference, “Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today,” is scheduled for June 2-6.
 
“During the 2010 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we are invited to follow the whole of chapter 24 of Luke’s gospel,” the document said in explaining this year’s theme. “Whether it be the terrified women at the tomb, the two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus or the eleven disciples overtaken by doubt and fear, all who together encounter the Risen Christ are sent on mission: ‘You are witness of these things.’ This mission of the Church is given by Christ and cannot be appropriated by anyone. It is the community of those who have been reconciled with God and in God, and who can witness to the truth of the power of salvation in Jesus Christ.
 
“We sense that Mary Magdalene, Peter or the two Emmaus disciples will not witness in the same way,” the document added. “Yet it will be the victory of Jesus over death that all will place at the heart of their witness. The personal encounter with the risen One has radically changed their lives and in its uniqueness for each one of them one thing becomes imperative: ‘You are witnesses of these things.’ Their story will accentuate different things, sometimes dissent may arise between them about what faithfulness to Christ requires, and yet all will work to announce the Good News.”
 
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