The Oklahoma Alliance for Liturgy and the Arts will present a prayer service to commemorate the 2017 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017, at 4 p.m., at the Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene, 4400 Northwest Expressway, Oklahoma City.
All are invited. The service will include music, prayer, scripture and presentations by two speakers:
- Rev. Floyd Schoenhals – Bishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- Sister Diane Koorie, RSM – Director of the Pastoral Ministry Program of the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City
This year marks the 110th annual observance of the Week of Prayer, which began in 1908. The observance lasts eight days, beginning Jan. 18. These dates were originally chosen because they included the Christian celebrations of Saint Peter on Jan. 18 and Saint Paul on Jan. 25.
Father Stephen Bird, president of the Oklahoma Alliance for Liturgy and the Arts, said, “Our service this year is especially important in that 2017 marks the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation era. Recent ecumenical events between the two church bodies (the Roman Catholic and the Lutheran Churches) remind us that we are called to Reconciliation, for the Love of Christ Compels Us to work for unity and peace in the Church. The goal of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is to pray for the unity that Christ wills by whatever means he wills it.”
The mission of the Oklahoma Alliance for Liturgy & the Arts, a Christian not-for- profit interdenominational organization, is to enhance communal worship by promoting the visual and performing arts in Oklahoma churches.
(For more information or materials on the national Week of Prayer, go to www.geii.org, Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute.)
