Sisters of Bethany

Unity

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
takes place each year
between 18th - 25th January

The week is co-ordinated by "Churches Together in Britain and Ireland [CTBI], who describes its aims: "There are many different Christian churches and denominations, but all have the same basic calling: to worship God, to share the good news about Jesus Christ and to work for the good of all people. So they often need to work together - and to coordinate the work they each do separately. When they do, they are acting as Churches Together.

But being Churches Together means more than that:
It means commitment by each church and denomination to deepen its fellowship with the others, and - without losing what makes each interestingly different - to work with them towards a greater visible unity.

Churches Together organisations have been set up to represent towns, regions, and the four nations - Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England. There is also a Churches Together in Britain in Ireland.

for more information contact:
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

2008 is the Centenary year of the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”,
which takes place each year between 18 - 25 January.

Various celebrations in London took place at Westminster Abbey:
on Friday 18 January there was an Ecumenical Service
attended by Archbishop Rowan Williams and the leaders of the various denominations
For more information: Edith Steele [edith.steele@cte.org.uk]
Churches Together in England

Address given at the Unity Service
held on 23 January 2008
at the House of Bethany
by Father Gregory CSWG

Father Gregory from the Community of the Will of God at Crawley Down spoke to us about Unity. His address was unscripted and was evidently spoken from the heart. He is a monk who has been a Religious for 46 years and his message was almost unsettling in its simplicity and scope; it is challenging but also full of hope and encouragement.

There were two main themes of his reflections. He started by quoted from the “True Life in God Messages” by Vassula Ryden. “Do you not realise that this is my Body?” This is a message expressed by Jesus to Vassula saying that the Church is His Body and the rupture and division within the Body is rupture and division of Him. Father Gregory said this is a very uncomfortable fact and we need to appreciate that when we are talking about the unity of the Church we are talking about a person - the person of Jesus. He said that unity is not so much about bringing church institutions together for a week during Unity Week but the Holy Spirit showing us what Unity is about - the unity of a person and what it must be like to be a baptised member of His Body but separated from the Body. Are we not re-crucifying the Lord Jesus again by saying we love Him and yet tearing His Body apart [Hebrews 6:6].

The second theme of his talk was, “What can we be doing to make a difference?” Unity should not be only an event for a week, but should be the main thrust, our major concern. Before Jesus went to the cross his last message, in the Gospel of John, was about unity in the Holy Spirit. This is also stressed by Paul in Ephesians 1:10 “to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ”, and again in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done”.

Father Gregory believes that a prophetic word has been spoken to the Church, which we should heed. The Church was unified for half of its existence until the split between the East and West Churches. This rupture happened gradually at a time when communications were slower than in our technological age of TV and the Internet. This is the split that needs to be healed. The prophetic word of God, spoken by both the present Pope and his predecessor, is that the “Church needs to breathe with both lungs” and these lungs are the Eastern and Western Churches. We need to deal with this first great rupture and then the subsequent divisions in the western Churches will follow. Father Gregory believes that the Holy Spirit is at work to bring unity between the Eastern and Western Churches and the Holy Spirit has indicated the first step is to re-unify the date of Easter, the most important time of Church life - Pray for this! At present the Eastern and Western Churches celebrate Easter on different dates but there is only one Church so this date should be unified. This follows from the unity we celebrate as one Body at every Eucharist.

This is a straightforward message from a humble man who has devoted his life to God.

[Transcript by Colin Passey]

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2008

This year marks the centenary since the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity was first introduced.

The Week of Prayer was first observed from 18 to 25 January 1908. The idea came from Father Paul Wattson, an Episcopalian Franciscan priest in the USA and his English friend, the Reverend Spencer Jones, vicar of St David’s Church, Moreton in the Marsh, Gloucestershire.

What prompted Father Paul Wattson, to start the gatherings for prayer in 1908. The Sisters of Bethany can consider themselves to have had a small part in influencing Father Wattson.

In July 1897 a young American woman came to the door of the convent in Lloyd Square with a letter of introduction to the Reverend Mother. This visitor was Lurana Mary White, and she had come to England after some years of trial and error and investigation in the hope of leading a vowed life in poor circumstances.

She had joined a Community in New York with whom she had received her schooling, but she was dissatisfied with their custom of making only a temporary promise when she longed for life commitment. She decided to travel with an aunt who was coming to England, while waiting on God for the next step forward. In the event Lurana asked to be allowed to join the Noviciate of the Sisters of Bethany, to be trained for the Religious Life which she wished to make her own but in different circumstances.

Mother Etheldreda Anna (Mother Foundress SSB) was a woman of insight and understanding. She felt it right to give encouragement to a new venture and, with the Community’s approval, agreed to receive her as a postulant but was unable to grant her Bethany’s habit. After a little less than a year of training she was allowed to receive a habit of her own choice, (a brown Franciscan one) and returned to America where, with one or two others, and directed by Father Wattson, the Franciscan based Society of the Atonement came into being at Graymoor, New York. The objective of the Society was to pray and work for Christian unity.

Mother Lurana and Father Wattson were caught up in the dilemma of the position of Religious in the Church of England and the part that Religious Life plays in our catholic heritage. The Church of England managed still to contain many divergent opinions. There were those who reconciled their agreement with Roman doctrine, whilst remaining within the Anglican fold; there were those individuals who more and more saw the Roman Catholic church as the true one, until they followed Newman to make their submission to Rome; there were High Church men, more Roman than Rome, and there were those who, like the Brothers and Sisters of the Society of the Atonement saw themselves as God’s agents in reconciliation and unity with Rome through the gradual conversion of the whole Church of England. Thus in 1909 the whole community, lead by Father Wattson and Mother Lurana, in America made its submission to Rome.

And now, after 100 years of The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, what do we mean by ‘Christian Unity’, how much more united are we? Have recent developments in our churches made us more anxious about the prospects of Christian unity?

Unable to find solutions ourselves we recognize our dependence on God, a recognition of this year’s theme, ‘Pray without ceasing’. Unceasing prayer for Unity echoes profoundly the precept of Mother Foundress for the Sisters of Bethany. The Community’s work in the hidden life of prayer for Christian Unity received eloquent affirmation in the encouragement given them by the Abbé Paul Couturier in some words with which he concluded one of his letters to the community,

“In Christ let us pray, pray, pray for Unity”

We were asked to provide any correspondence arising from contact with the
Abbe Paul Couturier.

He had visited England twice in his mission to promote the January Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In 1937, and again in 1938, he visited many Anglican Religious Communities -including the Sisters of Bethany. It was interesting to read the account of that visit, on July 27, 1938 in the Community Chronicles.

The Sisters were assembled in the Community Room (Bethany) and the Abbe spoke to them through an interpreter as he didn't speak English. The Abbe first expressed his pleasure in coming and his joy in finding that one of the foundations of our Society is prayer for Unity. He spoke of

'the pain of separation and his whole beautiful face reflected that pain. He said that all heresies were terrible, but this is the most terrible, for it is a heresy against love, and of that we are all guilty'.

He spoke of the Universal Prayer for Unity and the aim of corporate reunion. He took the Sisters to chapel and knelt with them saying prayers in Latin to which they responded in English - prayers for reunion and for the Community.

The background to the Abbe's visit to England arose from his vocation to establish/re-establish the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In 1878 the 2nd Lambeth Conference had recommended the observance of a special season of prayer for reunion. In 1895 Pope Leo Xlll enjoined upon Catholics throughout the world the first Octave, or Novena, of prayer for Christian Unity to be observed from the Feast of the Ascension to Pentecost, and in 1897 he established this in perpetuity. This Catholic intercession was joined by numerous Anglicans, Old Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox believers. Anglo-Catholics were especially exhorted to a 9 days intercession for the realisation of Christian Unity.

In time this fire died down and another attempt was born about 1908 in Anglicanism. This time it took the form of an Octave from 18th - 25th January -(being feast days of 2 pillars of the Church, St. Peter and St. Paul). This initiative was the vision of Rev. Spencer Jones (an Anglican) and Rev. P. F.Wattson (an American Episcopalian who became a Roman Catholic in 1917 along with his congregation.) Neither of these initiatives found universal acclaim because the underlying principle of this "prayer for unity" was "reunion with Rome".

Abbe Couturier's inspiration was to reach out beyond that limited vision to a prayer which found universal acceptance - that of the prayer of Christ. He asked all people to join in prayer:

'that God will give the visible unity of his Kingdom, such
as Christ wishes and through whatever means he wishes'.

This is prayer based on the prayer of Christ in St. John 17. The prayer of Christ after the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, in which he asks his Father for the Unity of his Church, must find its echo in sorrow and constant supplication in the heart of every Christian. For what follower of Christ could refuse to see in his prayer for Unity the prototype of all prayer for Unity?

The Abbe proposed the 18th - 25th January for the 'Universal Prayer of Christians for Unity' but he counted on the 2 broad intercessions for Unity, Pentecost and January continuing to exist side by side, to live and grow. The Pentecostal movement being directed towards a more marked interiority, an atmosphere of the silent unobtrusive Upper Room Retreat, in commemorative union with the Apostles. January being reserved for a time more open to public witness.

One can imagine the joy with which the Sisters received the Abbe's words, echoing as they did so profoundly the precepts of Mother Foundress for her Community to pray for the unity of Christians in a hidden life of prayer. It was an eloquent affirmation of the work and prayer of the Community since its foundation in 1866.

We, in our day, try to be faithful to her vision. As a Community we pray daily for the unity of Christians during the Midday Office litany. The intention of the Eucharist every Thursday is for Unity and is followed by our Office for Unity. On Fridays we keep a
3 hour Prayer Watch before the Blessed Sacrament, and in addition each Sister has her own special intentions.

Each Sister makes the offering of herself in the hidden life of prayer within the Community, in the belief that God desires and accepts that offering. We are encouraged to persevere by some words of the Abbe with which he concluded one of his letters to the Community:

"In Christ let us pray, pray, pray for Unity".

Sister Rita-Elizabeth, SSB