IN THE ECUMENICAL CHAPEL, GENEVA CHURCHES GATHERED FOR THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY.
The ecumenical celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, organized by the Committee of the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Geneva (RECG, Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés Chrétiennes de Genève), took place on January 17, 2027, in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre. Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC
In the chapel of the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, where the World Council of Churches is based, members of the Geneva church gather to perform prayers and hymns to mark the annual Christian Unity Week of Prayer, held in the Northern Hemisphere from January 18 to 25 each year.
In his sermon, Father Christian Ferber of the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church of Geneva said, "Let us keep looking together to see where we can do something together for the people of Geneva who are excluded, marginalized, and stigmatized."
He spoke of Jesus' parable from the Bible about the "good Samaritan.".
In this parable, someone from an isolated community of Samaritans binds up the wounds of a man who was attacked and left for dead, but a respectable religious figure from his own community ignores his suffering.
The theme of the 2024 week of prayer for Christian unity is "Love the Lord your God... and your neighbor as yourself "(Luke 10:27), the verse that precedes the parable of the "Good Samaritan."
Ferber recounted in his sermon how churches will face conflicts and challenges around the world in 2024, such as climate issues, wars in Ukraine and Israel, and increasingly secular public opinion.
"Let us find the same prophetic voice in which we must denounce flagrant injustice relentlessly and courageously," he said. "Following in the footsteps of Jesus and the story of The Good Samaritan, let us accept challenges together in this new year 2024."
The ecumenical celebration on January 17 is organized by the committee of the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Geneva (called Rassemblement des Eglises et Communaut Chr S Christiennes de GenèVe, or RECG), which currently consists of 28 churches and communities in Geneva.
The organizer, Katharina Mainberger-Dellweg, and the choir of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Geneva played the music.
The text for the week of prayer for Christian Unity 2024, created by Christians from Burkina Faso, was published by the Vatican Dicastery for promoting unity and the Christian faith and the Commission on the Order of the World Council of Churches. The liturgy is based on these texts.
The president of the RECG, Andrea von Maltitz, invited representatives of various churches to share drinking water together as the celebration began.
The law recalls how people in Burkina Faso shared water from gourds, traditional water vessels, with guests who came from afar.
Photo gallery of the ecumenical celebrations in Geneva
According to the January 16, 2024 WCC news release, "you will love the Lord your God...and your neighbor as yourself...will be the theme of the week of prayer for Christian unity in 2024.
For more information, see Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2024.
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