That All May Be One / Fr. Rick Ginther

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity allows us to be one in Christ

As we approach the Christmas season, we do so with so many Christians throughout the world.

What we celebrate during Christmas is a reminder of our unity in Christ. And yet, we are not united in communion—that oneness which Jesus mandated for us in John 17:20-21.

On Jan. 17-25, we will celebrate our longing for unity: our annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

This year’s annual prayer service was prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.

What follows is a slightly revised self-description penned by this community of Eastern Orthodox believers.

It is an honor for the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church to be highlighted during this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We are happy to share with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world an ecumenical service that comes from the heart of our Church’s ancient Christian witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Light from Light for Light’ is the title of the service. It’s inspired by the naming of Christ in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, crafted 1,700 years ago in Nicaea.

Christ is ‘Light from the Light.’ The Anointed One was sent into this world with a mission. He was and is to shine God’s Light into this troubled world. He was and is to bring us into loving communion with each other and with God. Thus, ‘Light from Light for Light.’

Our service is adapted from the ‘Sunrise Service,’ one of the daily prayer-hours of the Armenian Church. It was compiled by the great Catholicos [i.e., patriarch/leader of the Church], the theologian, hymnographer, liturgical reformer, ecumenist and pastor, St. Nersess ‘the Gracious’ of Gla (†1173).

It is significant that St. Nersess composed this service. It has no counterpart in any other Church and has a specifically ecumenical intent: to return to Christ’s embrace a sect of sun-worshipping pagans who were circulating in Armenia during his time.

The imagery of Christ the Light suffuses the prayers, hymns and Scripture readings of the sunrise service. Decidedly, it would have attracted the interest of the sunworshippers.

St. Nersess sought out the lost sheep not through intimidation, nor by negotiation, but through a creative and loving offering of the very best his Church’s Christian witness had to offer. Perhaps this can serve as a model for all of us who strive for the Christian communion desired for us by God.

It is also noteworthy that Armenia became the first nation to declare Christianity as its official religion. The efforts of St. Gregory converted the pagan King Trdat in the year 301 AD.

St. Gregory is known as ‘the Illuminator’ because he brought the Light of Christ to the Armenian people through baptism of the Holy Spirit in the name of the Holy Trinity.

The faithful of the Armenian Church are grateful for the prayers of all of the churches during this year.

May the Holy Spirit open our hearts wide to perceive more vividly the radiant light of Almighty God’s love for his children, the grim disgrace of our division, and the blazing urgency for us to rekindle the light of Christian reconciliation.

May we thank God always for the boundless compassion and mercy of the ‘Light from Light.’

Please join the Indiana Christian denominational leaders at 7 p.m. on Jan. 20 at Lawrence United Methodist Church, 5200 Shadeland Ave., in Indianapolis, to pray through the words and traditions of our Armenian brothers and sisters.

May we become truly one, as Jesus mandated.
 

(Father Rick Ginther is director of the archdiocesan Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs. He is retired from full-time pastoral ministry, but is still active as a priest of the archdiocese.) †