Unity is the heritage of the Church — a heritage that begins in Bethlehem, hundreds of people heard on a national Zoom call to mark the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 23.

From Jan. 18 to 25 each year, the Christian church celebrates the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The week, really an octave, is a time when Christians of various denominations hold joint services in each other’s churches to pray for full visible unity of the communion of believers.

The virtual has become normal and for lots of things it’s not bad. Virtual ecumenism, however, just isn’t a thing.

“I’m sorry. The ecumenical work of promoting Christian unity is face-to-face,” said Archdiocese of Toronto officer for Christian Unity and Jewish Dialogue Rev. Dr. Luis Melo. “It’s about relationships. It’s about receiving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.”

While Melo understands that virtual meetings are probably never going away, he is certain that Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox and Anglican parishes won’t start gathering for prayer or sitting down to dinner together again until it is safe and normal to do so.

“The priority with many of our parishes and congregations and churches, ecclesial communities, is going to be on re-gathering our own communities,” Melo said. “Because they’ve been dispersed, necessarily dispersed, and are slowly coming back.”

Melo sees things looking up for the 2022 Week of Prayer for Christianity, Jan. 18-25.

The annual liturgy bringing together Church leaders to pray for each other has been scheduled for Jan. 23 at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Scarborough. Unlike last year’s all-virtual, sparsely attended service, this year will feature both live and online prayer.

The Greater Toronto Area Council of Churches is the co-ordinating body for the service. This year the Week of Prayer will feature a strong strain of Eastern Christian spirituality, given its origins.

The prayers, theme and key Gospel passage for the week were prepared this year by the Middle East Council of Churches, drawing attention to the ancient roots of Christian faith in the land where Jesus lived.

The churches have chosen the story of the Magi, Matthew 2:1-12 as the key to prayers, reflection and liturgy for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

“The Magi reveal to us the unity of all nations desired by God,” the Middle Eastern Council of Churches writes in its introduction to this year’s Week of Prayer. “They travel from far-off countries, and represent diverse cultures, yet they are driven by the same hunger to see and know the newborn king, and are gathered into the little house in Bethlehem in the simple act of giving homage and offering gifts.”

A kit with Bible study materials, liturgy and homily suggestions, hymns and children’s activities is available for free at www.weekofprayer.ca/2022-wpcu-resources.

The Catholic Register and Melo will also be reaching out to Catholic school boards in the archdiocese to invite students to participate in the annual Friars’ Student Writing Awards, sponsored by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement.

For anyone who has ever thought they might have been happier as a monk or a nun, living the contemplative life, this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is your chance to try it out.

“Simple trust in the provident hand of God,” will be the key to Christian unity, Cardinal Thomas Collins told more than 300 people who gathered for the final liturgy of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in Toronto Jan. 26.

Many posters promoting the theme of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity — “They Showed Us Unusual Kindness” — include photos of a small battered rowboat to illustrate the shipwreck which landed St. Paul on the island of Malta. The story in the Acts of the Apostles (28:1-10) is short on details about that unusual kindness.

An island nation that is more than 90 per cent Catholic is using the story of a shipwreck to remind Christians what ecumenism is really about — kindness, welcome and the bonds of our common humanity.

Indonesian faith leaders didn’t have look far for inspiration in choosing the prayers for the 111th annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

A surprise request during a visit to a Catholic church led to a revelation about love and Christian unity for a Baptist preacher.

The fact that the Eucharist cannot yet be shared between faiths has left everyone “starving,” says the director of ecumenical and interfaith affairs for the Archdiocese of Toronto.

VATICAN CITY - Christians are united in bloodshed as they suffer from violence and persecution in various parts of the world, Pope Francis told Christian leaders.

TORONTO - Dave Williams happened into the closing liturgy for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity entirely by chance. He wandered into Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, saw what was happening and immediately called his wife, Beverly John.

By the end of the service, Williams and John were convinced they had stumbled into something important.

Fr. Paul Wattson had one great insight that drove him. That single flash of wisdom resulted in missionary projects, pioneering media work, millions of dollars raised for charity, a new religious order, a breakthrough journey from the Anglican tradition to the Catholic Church and, most famously, the Church Unity Octave which grew gradually into the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The opportunity annually extended to Christians worldwide to be unified in prayer comes this year from Brazil, and it is being embraced in Canada from coast to coast.

You have heard it said that a stitch in time saves nine. I know how to thread a needle and have done so many times. I have even sewn a button on my shirt and on occasion sat at a sewing machine, but a tailor I am not.