WCC Week of Prayer 2005 Focuses on Slovakia Churches

The traditional annual event of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC), the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2005 is set on 18th - 25th January with the focus set to be on Slovakia. As one of the oldest ecumenical initiative, Christian communities all over the world will be involved in prayers.

The theme for this year is based on 1 Cor 3:1-23, "Christ, the one Foundation of the Church". With reference to the social and political situation of Slovakia over the past few decades, the bible passage has been well-applied to the lives of churches.

Slovakia or the Slovak Republic, was previously part of the old Czechoslovakia which was under communist rule. As a predominately Roman Catholic country, ecumenical movement in Slovakia was first started by evangelicals from Protestant churches in an attempt to unite with Catholics in the 1920’s.

In the 1950’s as the country was taken over by Communists, the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Czechoslovakia was established in order to present the message of Gospel and a Christian viewpoint regarding the social situation to the society.

Before the downfall of Communism, churches were allowed to exist, however the government had attempted to impede their growth and limit their witness in society. The development of democracy in 1989 provided a new impulse for the work of all churches.

Currently, Slovak churches face the challenge of uniting Christians of different confessions in service and mutual understanding to bring a revival to Christianity. The theme chosen this year is to remind Christians across all denominations that the single one common root of all churches is Christ.

WCC has prepared a series of prayer resources for the prayer week. Members of the Theological Committee of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Slovakia prepared the texts for the week of prayer in collaboration with the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission and the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU). This year is the first time it has been published jointly by a number of organisations.