By James Buchok
WINNIPEG (CCN)

 

Archbishop James Weisgerber and the Archdiocese of Winnipeg opened the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 22 at Holy Ghost Church, welcoming church leaders representing a spectrum of Christians faiths and their faithful. The ecumenical worship service initiated the annual week-long, city-wide celebration.

"Tonight, here and now, we are all called to unite," Weisgerber said. "We need to remember just before his death, Jesus prayed for us, that we would be one as God the Father is one with Jesus."

The theme for this year's Week of Prayer -- "We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:51-58) -- was chosen by the Christian churches and communities in Poland. Holy Ghost Church was established as a Polish church in 1899 and continues serving Winnipeg's Polish Catholics.

Pastor Rev. Maciej Pajak, OMI, welcomed the assembly, saying as the faithful pray for and strive for unity, "we are reminded that the unity for which we pray is not merely a comfortable notion of friendliness and co-operation. We need to open ourselves to each other, to offer gifts to, and receive gifts from one another, so that we might truly enter into the new life in Christ, which is the only true victory.

"There is room for everyone in God's plan of salvation," Pajak said. "Through his death and resurrection, Christ embraces all. The use of our diverse gifts in common service to humanity makes visible our unity in Christ."

As an offering of a sign of peace, the assembled participated in the Polish Christmas custom of sharing a special wafer called the oplatek. Each person was given a wafer to be shared by breaking off a piece of another person's wafer and eating it. This sharing of the wafer expresses unity, love and forgiveness.

In his homily, Weisgerber said that Paul wrote "that the resurrection we share in baptism is only a seed and what God has planned for the end of times, the resurrection, the ultimate act of God's power is going to transform us completely.

"The unity of the church is the work of God. God is the one who will make us one and that will happen at the end of time," Weisgerber said. "That is the work of God and the promise of God, a promise we need to trust. No matter what our struggles, weaknesses or divisions, in the end, by the power of Jesus' death and resurrection, we will be changed, we will know God and we will know each other.

"This week is more important than any other week because unity comes to us only through God," the archbishop said. "God has promised victory and we know that victory is ours if we stay with God. We are no longer enemies as we once were, but are we friends? Do we just live next to each other? How can we do faith sharing together, Bible study together?"

Weisgerber said it is God who creates unity, "but it is also God who asks us to do whatever we can -- that we may be one so that the world may be one."

The opening celebration was followed with services over the next seven evenings at Dakota House, which hosted a maturing adults service, Jubilee Mennonite Church, First Lutheran Church, Charleswood United Church, an ecumenical youth ministry leaders service at Sherwood Park Lutheran, St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church.