Ecumenical Prayer Week begins on Sunday, with the national opening service to be held in Budapest at the Reformed Church on Kálvin Square, confirmed the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Hungary (ECCH).
During the week of prayer, congregations of different denominations will hold services in ecumenical communities and pray for Christian unity. Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, and Péter Kondor, Bishop of the Southern Lutheran Church District, will speak at the opening ceremony of the series of events.
Since the decision of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the ECCH in 2017, the opening Sunday of the ecumenical prayer week is also a day of prayer for persecuted Christians.
This Sunday, both Catholic parishes and congregations belonging to the Ecumenical Council have the opportunity to pray for persecuted Christians around the world during the morning service.
Photo: Facebook/Azbej Tristan
This year’s motto for the week of prayer is taken from the fourth chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope.” The basic idea for Prayer Week was chosen by the leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the prayers and meditations were prepared by members of the Armenian Apostolic Church together with members of the Armenian Catholic and Protestant churches.
The Hungarian organizers of the event remind us in the Hungarian edition of the prayer booklet that the Armenian Apostolic Church, founded in the first century AD, is one of the oldest communities, which has undergone many trials and tribulations.
The most tragic of these was the Armenian genocide: during World War I, approximately one and a half million Armenians were killed. In Armenia, the community of followers of Christ was declared the state religion at the beginning of the 4th century AD, yet throughout its history, many of its martyrs sacrificed their lives for their faith.
The “ecumenism of martyrs connects the long-suffering Armenian Christians with other persecuted Christian communities of the 20th century” and with the martyr churches of our time, they wrote.
The ecumenical week of prayer has been held since 1908. Initially, only members of the Anglican and Catholic churches participated in the event, which was held in Graymoor, U.S.
Since 1968, prayer booklets have been prepared for the ecumenical prayer week and sent all over the world.
The event has a tradition dating back several decades in Hungary.
Via MTI; Featured image: Facebook/Református Közéleti és Kulturális Alapítvány
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