A service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

for Churches Together in West Wimbledon.

 

“And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all.” Thessalonians 5.

 

On Sunday 20^th January, Christians from different denominations in West Wimbledon met at St Matthew's to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We had the welcome opportunity to meet people from neighbouring churches and to hopefully learn from one another. We reflected upon the words of St Paul to the Thessalonians: what are our responsibilities as Christians, towards each other and towards the wider world? As Rev’d Mary Bide said in her sermon, it is easy for an individual church to become complacent, or downhearted, or lose its passion for outreach. But by encouraging one another (and maybe even admonishing, as St Paul says), the different denominations can offer a new perspective and new inspiration. Sometimes it seems that the world is as broken and despairing as it has ever been, and we know that to work for the Kingdom of God is hard, unglamorous and thankless. Yet the message of the sermon and of the service as a whole was one of great hope. The very fact that members of Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and other traditions were praying together gave us a sense that, united, we could do great good in the world.

 

Fr Stuart invited the congregation to reflect on three vital themes: planet earth; justice and peace; and hospitality. Could we as individuals offer a pledge towards action? There were suggestions in the Order of Service to guide us, some ambitious, some very simple. For example, we could put out food for the birds in Winter. We could buy Fairtrade products whenever possible. We could find out what local churches are doing to help asylum seekers and refugees, and see what else needs to be done. Whilst the choir and soloists played reflective music, the people took threads of wool from three displays: green for planet earth, white for justice and peace, and red for hospitality. They tied the wool around their wrists, these little bands symbolising the pledges they had made, to be taken home and not forgotten.

 

We concluded with the Lord's Prayer, and a Blessing that summed up the spirit of the service:

“Let us leave this place, glad to have prayed together, challenged to serve God's world.  Amen.”                                                                     Catherine Richards