#wpcu2017

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 8

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 8 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland.

Reflection:

Be-Holding

If seeing is believing can we look not turning our face away from the mourning the crying the pain staring into the grave meeting the gaze of what we fear

If seeing is believing can we look turning our face towards resurrection reconciliation and reformation to the day when every tear will be wiped away

Every tear

the tears of those living in terror the tears of those fighting in anger the tears of those grieving from loss the tears of those aching with compassion the tears of God for the pain of the world

If seeing is believing can we look if through blurred eyes beholding all things are being made new.

Prayer

Jesus Christ, your torn and abused body, found its peace in death. Yet you are risen on Easter day. Give us the courage to comprehend your saving and transforming love in the wounds as well as the healing. So that we can find new and deeper joy in the good news of your risen life! Amen.

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

●      Watch the short film Tree of Life – an example of what was meant for destruction bringing restoration.

●      Seek out stories, songs, poems or pictures from those seeking refuge in your community or country that describe their hopes for the future.

●      Give thanks for the work of ACT Alliance, 140 churches and faith-based organisations working together in over 100 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 7

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 7 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland.

Reflection

Reformed

You shape us – each and every one; some are more malleable than others, and yet more near broken, fragile, cracked. But a fault line runs through us all; Perhaps that’s how we see the light, the spark of the divine in each of us?

As we each embrace that which is broken in us, we find that in our wounds – that is where we discover each other. Not that my pain is yours, or yours mine; but that none of us, not a single one, go through life without being scarred.

If we were each to bring our broken pieces and bit by bit, lay them down side by side; we would see Your craftsmanship, reforming that which is broken, into that which is healed

loved

and one day

whole.

Prayer

God of reconciliation, Through Christ you call us to a unity that is not an option. Yet we fall back tenaciously on our old ways: conflict, division and fractured relationships. Confront and convict us of this failure; Break through the walls of our excuses, And set us free to participate in your ministry of reconciliation. This we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

●      Ask someone for something you need today.

●      View the Radi-Aid Awards (formerly the Rusty Radiator Awards) and seek to challenge stereotypes about who the needy are.

●      Give those who are new to your community an opportunity to contribute – for example ask them to share in the cooking of a community meal.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 6

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 6 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland. 

Reflection

Covenant

This I do not know: Whether I must change, repent – reform before reaching for reconciliation; Or if, rather, being reconciled with my brothers and sisters is a necessary condition for reformation.

This I know: that human time, rarely straight-lining, rather, spirals; that the troublesome grit-of-separation seeps into the cavities of the walls of division, growing layers of wisdom: pearls of reconciliation.

And this more I know: that the covenant binding us with God is a gift of God’s time.

Prayer

God of promise, you call us into a covenant that binds us into your inclusive love; yet we build walls that disturb and disrupt this. Lead us to a renewed understanding of your promise to us, that is never cancelled, but which reconciles us to you, through Christ Amen

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

●      Read about the work of reconciliation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

●      Explore the different ways people can be discriminated against.

●      Take action to challenge any myths that have grown up concerning those who seek asylum. See the Refugee Council, Irish Refugee Council and Focus on Refugees websites.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 5

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 5 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland.

Reflection:

Re-new

Created, each one of us, beautiful and blessed, in the image and likeness of the One who created us. God is our refuge, and still takes sanctuary in us.

Graced by humility to retrieve the lost kindness in our own eyes can we see ourselves and others as God sees us.

In solidarity we walk with those on the road, whose burden is heavy and whose loss is great.

Can we bless the imagining of ourselves which is so often smaller than God’s so that each of us might see that future and that stature that we are called to become.

Make us attentive still to good news and small occasions. To the grace of what is possible. ‚at we may neither miss our neighbour’s gift nor our enemy’s need.

Prayer

Holy God, maker of heaven and earth, in you we are a new creation. Give us new hearts to overcome all that endangers our unity. Th‚rough Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now and forever. Amen.

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

●      Spend time connecting with creation today, for example, by watching a nature documentary, visiting a local park or going for a walk in a woodland.

●      Give thanks for the progress made towards a Global Climate Change deal and continue to campaign for climate justice. Is your church an eco-church or eco-congregation?

●      Connect with those new to your community by inviting their involvement in any local environmental projects. e.g. community gardens, allotments, recycling, tree planting.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 4

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 4 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland.

Reflection:

Remember

To linger over-long in the haze of time, so stifling the past in nostalgia or blame-fumed fury en-shrouds, tomb-like, as with salt, moments otherwise free to soar. But to re-imagine the past, leaning deep into memory, so freeing the now to birth the not yet to draw out flavours of the future as with salt, to taste and see goodness… this is how it is

Prayer

Liberating God, we look back in nostalgia, but often frozen to the spot unable to move. Free us to travel with you into the future that, learning from and treasuring the past, we may journey with you, hand to the plough, into the transformation of life in you. Amen

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

●      Look through an old photo album and reflect on those places and people who have shaped and taught you.

●      Plan with your local congregations to go on a pilgrimage walk around your churches or visit a local heritage site or place of historical interest. Notice the stories of your shared history.

●      Remember Rwanda and respond to the events in Burundi.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 3

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 3 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland.

Reflection:

Re-Human

Is it possible, that we have de-humanised terrified children and feeling mothers for the sake of tranquillity? Is it possible that we have be-littled ourselves so much that reality means more through a screen than a touch? Is it possible that we have been seen so completely that through a slight-seismic shift divinity becomes more visible through our humanity?

Prayer

God, three in one, Alpha and Omega, Source and destination, Forgive our self-obsession And smug satisfaction. Turn us from Saul to Paul, Living your gracious love And growing into the unity you offer. Amen.

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

• Watch the clip on YouTube to view how Damascus has been devastated by conflict.

• Pray for the Damascus road conversion required for peace to be realised. Prayers are available from Christian Aid.

• Take action on behalf of those escaping conflict and seeking a safe place to call home

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 2

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 2 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland. 

Reflection:

Re-Source

Like entering a new galaxy, in order to ¡nd my source must I ¡rst lose all sense of self? Is not the paradox of self-loss that in order fully to ¡nd the other ¡rst I must know, love and embrace self. Only then may I fold my self into the great galaxy of the ‘I am’.

Prayer

Loving God, in Christ you freed us for a life that goes beyond ourselves. Shaped and moulded by your Spirit, enable us truly to become sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ our Lord, now and forever. Amen.

Go and Do - see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

• Take time to care for yourself today.

• Send an appropriate care package to the refugee camps at a European crossing point such as Calais.

• Organise to watch the Age of Loneliness documentary with a small group and discuss how to address the problem of loneliness in your church and wider community.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 - Day 1

Below is a reflection, prayer and some suggested actions for Day 1 of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as suggested by CBTI. Check out all their resources for this week here. For more details on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity see my blog post on @spiritualityireland

Reflection:

Friendship

If this is friendship… …to discover light through anguish …to overcome punishment with wholeness; …to embrace healing through being bruised and crushed tortured and killed; if he died in this way, for us his friends, for once, for all; then can I believe?

Prayer:

God of inextinguishable life, you never ‘unfriend’ us! Yet our relationships are often fragile and fickle - for we would hold on to life for fear of losing it. By your Spirit, give us the courage to lean on our ever faithful friend, Jesus so that we might understand more deeply how we gain life by laying it down. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Go and Do -  see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo

• Plan to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27th January. Share a joint action or prayer in your churches. The Council for Christians and Jews (CCJ) produces worship material on behalf of CTBI. 

• The number of users of Facebook passed 1 billion in 2015. What has friendship become in the age of Facebook? Consider the ideas shared in Rory Varrato’s TEDx talk. Contact a friend today who you haven’t been in touch with for a while.

• Find out how churches in your area are befriending those who are new to your community including those seeking refuge. Visit our Go and Do links for inspiration and guidance.