Each year between 18th and 25th January, there is a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

This year there will be a service at:

St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Manse Street, Tain

on Wednesday 24th January 2024

starting at 2:30pm

and a service at:

St Finnbarr’s Episcopal Church, School Hill, Dornoch

on Monday 22nd January 2024

starting at 1pm

This year, the service materials were prepared by an ecumenical team from the West African state of Burkina Faso facilitated by the local Chemin Neuf Community (CCN).

The chosen theme is ‘You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbour as yourself’ (Lk 10:27). Brothers and sisters from the Catholic Archdiocese of Ouagadougou, Protestant Churches, ecumenical bodies and the CCN in the West African country of Burkina Faso collaborated generously in drafting the prayers and reflections. 

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best known passages of Scripture, yet one that never seems to lose its power to challenge indifference to suffering and to inspire solidarity. It is a story about crossing boundaries that calls our attention to the bonds that unite the whole human family.

In choosing this passage of Scripture for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the churches of Burkina Faso have invited us to join with them in a process of self-reflection as they consider what it means to love our neighbour in the midst of a security crisis. Communities in our context may be less vulnerable to acts of mass violence than in Burkina Faso, but there are still many living with the memory and/or the threat of serious violence, centred on issues of identity and belonging. There are also groups within communities, including people from ethnic minority backgrounds and people seeking asylum, who feel particularly vulnerable to violence or being displaced by the threat of violence.

All of whatever denomination (or none) are most welcome to join us in Christian Unity.