WCC NEWS: Celebration of unity draws churches in Geneva together

In a service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, representatives from 25 churches in Geneva drew together in the World Council of Churches chapel on 18 January. 18 January 2023, Geneva, Switzerland: Leaders from a variety of traditions gather to give the final blessing, as a near-brimful chapel at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva serves as the venue for a prayer to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 2023. The prayer is hosted by the World Council of Churches together with the Committee of the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Geneva. Photo: Jeanne Pierson/WCC 24 January 2023 Anne Deshusses-Raemy, a Roman Catholic, and Blaise Menu, a Protestant, offered the homily together. Deshusses-Raemy and Menu are co-directors of l’Atelier Œcuménique de Théologie. Deshusses-Raemy spoke of how unity in Christ is not "uniformity" in a single mould, but “unity in diversity.” Menu reflected that, as long as we don't take the step of a real ecumenism of agape, “as long as the first step of ecumenism is not the meeting, but the negotiation, we will indeed have nothing to do together and our ecumenism will only be a façade.” Yet, he added, “in front of Christ, we are imperfect churches, but in Christ, we have communion and we are one.”  Deshusses-Raemy said that that “co-construction” to which Christ calls us is not a loss of one’s own identity. “The only risk we take is to lose ourselves together in the infinite love of God,” she said. 18 January 2023, Geneva, Switzerland: A near-brimful chapel at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva serves as the venue for a prayer to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 2023. The prayer is hosted by the World Council of Churches together with the Committee of the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Geneva. Here, co-directors of L’Atelier Oecuménique de Théologie: Anne Deshusses-Raemy and Blaise Menu. Photo: Jeanne Pierson/WCC Aurélie Ethuin-Lanoy, president of the Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés Chrétiennes de Genève, reflected that the prayer service was an unmissable event for those who are committed to the ecumenism, as it was an opportunity to pray together and to come together as Christians. “The Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés Chrétiennes de Genève gathers around 25 different churches in Geneva, and this event gives visibility to small churches,” she said. “We have a lot to offer each other and it is very important to be able to pray together." Photo gallery Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 18 January 2023, Geneva, Switzerland: A near-brimful chapel at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva serves as the venue for a prayer to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 2023. The prayer is hosted by the World Council of Churches together with the Committee of the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Geneva. Photo: Jeanne Pierson/WCC See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland