Please join the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement for an

Opening Mass

in observation of the 2024 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Thursday, January 18th, 2024
11:00 AM Eastern (UTC-5)

St. Paul’s Friary
40 Franciscan Way
Garrison, NY 10524

Open to the public

The 2024 theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is from Luke 10:27, in which Jesus summarizes the entire Law of the covenant with Israel, before illustrating the teaching with his parable of the Good Samaritan. This year’s theme comes through the combined efforts of the Pontifical Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the World Council of Churches and the Christian churches of Burkina Faso. Much of the coordination of this ecumenical project was done by the community of Chemin Neuf, a French Catholic and ecumenical community of vowed and lay people, particularly through their local community in Burkina Faso. Preaching at the Interchurch Center’s 2024 service will be the Very Rev. Patrick Malloy, Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where Chemin Neuf has recently established an intentional ecumenical community of young people living, working, and praying together (Community at the Crossing).

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was first observed in January, 1908. Known then as the Church Unity Octave, it was celebrated in the chapel of a small Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on a remote hillside fifty miles from New York City. This new prayer movement soon caught the imagination of others beyond the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, becoming an energetic movement that gradually blossomed into a worldwide observance involving many nations and millions of people.

To learn more about the 2024 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, including the daily prayer guide and other events, click here. Hard copy and online materials for the USA Week of Prayer for Christian Unity can be purchased here.