✨ The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: A Gentle Guide to an Eight‑Day Tradition of Hope
Every January, Christians around the world step into a quiet, steady rhythm of prayer for something both ancient and urgently contemporary: unity. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed each year from January 18–25 in the Northern Hemisphere, is an eight‑day (“octave”) tradition shared across denominations, cultures, and continents. It’s one of the few moments in the Christian calendar when Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, and many free‑church communities intentionally pray the same prayers, reflect on the same Scriptures, and hold the same hope: “That they all may be one” (John 17:21). 📅 When It Happens January 18–25 every year in the Northern Hemisphere In the Southern Hemisphere, many communities observe it between Ascension and Pentecost to align with their summer season The January dates were originally chosen to fall between two symbolic feasts: January 18: Feast of St. Peter January 25: Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul These two apostles — somet...