Each day during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we provide a starting point, reflection, questions and a prayer based on the theme. Here you can turn your reflections into action with our Go and Do points. Please check here for any up-to-date links.
Day 1
- Personal: Think of an example from the news that illustrates a society wounded by conflict. Research how Christian churches are responding. How can this be applied in your context?
- Local: Consider sharing the theme from this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with members of other faith communities in your local area, reflecting on the connections between the local and global contexts. What more can your communities do to bring issues of global justice into our local inter-faith dialogue?
- Global: Christians gathering to worship and witness in parts of Burkina Faso have been attacked and murdered, and the threat of violence continues to oppress and scatter that community. As we gather in this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, pray for all those facing religious persecution in Burkina Faso and other parts of the world.
Day 2
- Personal: Resolve to get to know a new person in your road and find a loving way to engage with them.
- Local: Explore where you live and what opportunities there are to cross barriers to serve.
- Global: Explore an issue regarding the displaced and dispossessed. How could you meaningfully contribute to the situation?
Day 3
- Personal: Think of a person you have never really thought of as your neighbour. How can you be a neighbour to them in a practical way?
- Local: Think of the church/congregation geographically nearest to your own with which you have little or no contact, and make contact!
- Global: Take practical steps as a church or group of churches to be neighbours to the people of Burkina Faso.
Day 4
- Personal: Reflect on your own circle of relationships and their geography. Choose today to walk through another part of town. What do you see and who do you notice?
- Local: Seek out a project in a local community near you that supports people often not seen. Look for ways in which you can support and encourage their work.
- Global: Take some time to research the conflict in Burkina Faso and the challenges facing the Church there.
Day 5
- Personal: What areas of difference or tension in your communities might you meaningfully seek deeper understanding around? Begin a compassionate and generous conversation with some others about this.
- Local: What groups already exist in your area that are actively involved in healing in some way? Explore meaningful ways of engaging with them.
- Global: Take time as a church group to tend to the earth and be part of healing a broken world (“renew the face of the ground” Ps: 104). As you do this consider the impact of your lifestyle on other parts of the world.
Day 6
- Personal: Find out about the life of a Christian from another tradition who has been a ‘good neighbour’. What did they do and what can you learn from this experience?
- Local: What ecumenical ‘treasure’ can be found in your area? Find out what Christians are doing together and get involved.
- Global: Consider your neighbours in a different part of the world. Join the World Council of Churches Prayer Cycle and commit to praying regularly for your neighbours and understanding them better: https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/prayer-cycle
Day 7
- Personal: Learn some basic phrases in the language of a group of people new to your area, and use them.
- Local: Think of ways in which your church or group of churches can receive from the people they help.
- Global: Discover the ways Christians, churches and people of other faiths have been merciful to those who would have least expected it.
Day 8
- Personal: Reflect on how you have experienced ‘other Christ’s’ and been Christ to others, then share some stories about this with others, and pray for more opportunities.
- Local: Where is God already at work in your community? Map out where you live highlighting the places where you notice something happening that may be God’s dream for your communities. Explore how you might join in and go and do likewise.
- Global: ‘Go and do likewise’ does not mean we have to go to places such as the Sahel region to have an impact. Explore ways of connecting with churches and partner organisations in Burkina Faso and other places that seem far away and actively seek deeper connection and understanding of situations/context.
