|TOP|Churches Together in Britain and Wales (CTBI) has launched resources for next year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, aimed at bringing churches around the globe closer together through mutual prayer for each other and for AIDS-afflicted individuals and communities.

Tuesday’s launch was headed by Rev Bob Fyffe, the recently appointed general secretary of CTBI. He said at the launch that the weekly prayer of Christians should be that “the church should be one just as Jesus prayed that the church should be one” and that the resources come at an “incredibly important time for the Christian church”.

“And at a time when in some respects the whole ecumenical movement is reconfiguring itself, is looking for fresh ecumenical vision, it seems appropriate to me that we should pray harder and harder that we might be one,” said Rev Fyffe.

The general secretary of CTBI was joined by members of the writing group involved in adapting the materials for the UK, including Rev Mary Hunter, representative of the Irish Inter-church Meeting for the last four years; Bede Gerrard, County Ecumenical Officer for Oxfordshire and a Reader in the Orthodox Church in Oxford; Rev Andrew Scobie, Parish Minister at Cardross in Dunbartonshire (Church of Scotland).

The material for the Week of Prayer 2007 is drawn from the experience of Christian communities in the South African region of Umlazi, near Durban, and has been internationalised by a team of Christians from around the world to make the issues accessible to all participating churches regardless of which country they are in.

The community of Umlazi, like so many others, has been ravaged by HIV and AIDS, with an estimated 50 percent of the residents infected with the virus. And the suffering from the widespread prevalence of the virus has only been aggravated by the stigma attached to issues of sexuality within the communities which keeps sufferers from speaking out on their condition.

|QUOTE|The Week of Prayer for Unity takes its spiritual theme, ‘He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak’, from Mark 7.31 – 37. It reflects the search for full visible unity among Christian churches in light of the experience of Christians in Umlazi and their desire to ‘break the silence’ on HIV and AIDS which so often oppresses and isolates sufferers.

Rev Hunter said: “The temptation is always to sanitise the reality so that the shocking truth about the way some people have to live is moderated. In the material we’ve drawn together for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2007 we sought to resist the temptation and I hope the shocking reality has not been sanitised or concealed.”

She added: “The voice of Umlazi and other places like it needs to be heard loud and clear.”

Rev Hunter also threw out a challenge to the church to tackle the “shocking truth” of disunity in the church.

“We have found ways to coexist one with another with only the odd embarrassing disagreement and dissent. We have been so successful in this that many see no need to continue the search for unity. And yet, as the people of Umlasi showed me through their material, together we could do so much more.

“United in faith and love, East and West, North and South, could accomplish so much more for the world.”

The resource writers urged Christians to use the materials beyond the one Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January by making use of them throughout the year.

“What is the point if for 51 other years we are not actually doing anything or praying for or thinking about the unity of all the people of God?” challenged Gerrard.

“If you are not thinking of the unity of the Church in Christ for 52 weeks a year one week a year is not going to make that much of a difference.

|AD|“Disunity is a scandal both to the church and to the world and only when and if we can think of it as a scandal will we be able to renew the unity of all Christians in the world.”

He added, “Unity does not mean uniformity but it does mean moving and working together for the glory of God, one God...and that’s what we need to see locally in our churches together, during the Week of Prayer, during the whole of the year.”

The distinctive cover of the resource materials shows four hands – Christ’s and ours – and are inspired by the British Sign Language sign for ‘speak out’.

The resources include prayers, activities, songs, hymns and litanies. They also direct users to further resources available on the issues highlighted by the materials, including DVD films and CDs as well as organisations in the UK which work in the HIV/AIDS field.

Preparations are also underway for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2008 which will mark the centenary of the event. The 2008 event will be based on the command in 1 Thessalonians 5.17 – 18 to pray without ceasing and John 17.31, Christ’s prayer that all may be one.

Rev Fyffe expressed his hope that, “the way in which the resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are picked up will not simply be something that is an intellectual exercise but is a movement of the heart as well, a movement into the heart of God as we pray to be one with God.”

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2007 will take place from 18 to 25 January next year in churches across the globe and throughout all mainstream denominations.