Praying around the Taize cross at the Newman Center on Good Friday.
The ecumenical and reconciliatory nature of the Taize Prayer around the Cross makes it an appropriate ceremony for the 2014 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 18-25.
Bishop Larry Silva has invited nearly 100 Hawaii Christian church leaders to join him in the Taize Prayer, an hour of meditative chants, prayers, petitions, Scripture reading, periods of silence and the reverencing of cross, beginning 7 p.m., Jan. 24, at the University of Hawaii’s Newman Center.
The diocesan Office of Worship has extended the invitation to the public.
The Taize Prayer originates with an international community of more than 100 vowed religious brothers, half Catholic and half Protestant, who live in Taize, France.
The Taize monastery attracts thousands of pilgrims, mostly young people, from around the world and also sponsors international ecumenical gatherings.
Bishop Silva proposed the Taize Prayer service to fill in for Oahu’s annual ecumenical prayer for Christian unity which was canceled this year. The site of the annual gathering of church leaders traditionally rotates among mainline Christian churches on Oahu.
At the prayer around the cross, a large icon cross is laid horizontally on stools in the center of the chapel and, with the lights dimmed and candles burning, participants come forward about a half dozen at a time to kneel around the cross, touching it with their heads or hands while the congregation prays and sings.
Besides prayers for Christian unity, the ceremony also includes prayers for persecuted Christians, for the revival of Christian churches, for the abandoned and persecuted and those who suffer injustice.
The Newman Center hosts a Taize Prayer around the Cross every Good Friday.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been observed for more than 100 years, working toward the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper “that they all may be one.”
Each year, an international group organized through the World Council of Churches and The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity prepares text material for the week based on a theme. This year’s theme, “Has Christ Divided Us?,” is from the first chapter of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
“This year has been especially challenging for all of us Christians,” the bishop wrote in his invitation letter, “because of the differences among us over recent issues in our community that saw divisions even between Christian churches.”
