An Ecumenical look at the year 2018 prior to the week of prayer for Unity
JERUSALEM – On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, the Jerusalem Bible and Archeology School hosted the traditional lecture given by Father Frans Bouwen, M.Afr., Before the Week of Prayer for Unity. The White Father, a specialist in Eastern Churches and dialogue with the Eastern Christian Churches, presented ecumenical news of the year 2018 to the faithful and religious of Jerusalem who will gather from Saturday to live a time of communion through daily celebrations.
Unity Week is an event of great importance in Jerusalem, and the presence of the various Christian Churches encourages them to welcome each other each day to share a time of prayer. These celebrations attract many faithful and some of them are even pilgrims who come especially to the Holy City to participate in this very special week.
Every year, on this occasion, the Commission for Ecumenical Dialogue presents a conference on ecumenical events of recent months, a way to invite the faithful to pray with the knowledge of the road traveled and to travel to live the Unity. Father Frans Bouwen is the president of this episcopal commission, and is in charge of disseminating the latest news of these moments of encounter between the different Churches. The Missionary of Africa, a member of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, has an expansive knowledge of the Eastern Churches. However, Father Frans at the beginning of the conference did not fail to specify that his presentation was, by necessity, presented in a subjective manner, that of a Catholic theologian established in Jerusalem.
Read the artcle of Cécile Klos on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.