It was a truly ecumenical celebration at St. Andrew’s with Castle Gate URC, Nottingham, for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service on Sunday 19th January. The minister, Revd Chris Ford, who led worship was joined by The Rt Revd Patrick McKinney, Bishop of Nottingham and The Rt Revd Paulina Hławiczka-Trotman, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.
Bishop Paulina spoke about her role as one of the Presidents of Churches Together in England and led intercessory prayers for church leaders and all the people of God, for church unity, for peace for those parts of our world torn apart by war, fire or flood and justice for people fleeing poverty and conflict.
Bishop Patrick, who leads the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, delivered the sermon. In an encouraging address, he shared his sense that rather than this being a time when ecumenism has “run out of steam”, he sensed that this is a kairos moment when God’s holy spirit is calling the churches, in their formal dialogues and especially at the local church level, to a deeper understanding and expression of the reality of our present unity in Christ and to a humble sharing with one another of the gifts and the insights we each have within our different Christian Traditions.
“Would we not all be the stronger if we could humbly share with one another our good practice in these areas of Church Life spirituality and Christian witness? Perhaps this is a time when we particularly need to heed this important truth – that the work of Christian Unity should be less about what we seek to propose and do and more about us all in prayer seeking together to discern what the Holy Spirit is asking of us, because where God’s Spirit is leading us as Christ’s Church is surely the true direction for all our ecumenical work and Christian witness.”
