Taize participants pray around the cross icon at the Prayer for Christian Unity at the Newman Center last year. Ecumenical Christian leaders, including Bishop Larry Silva, are seated in the background. (HCH file photo)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Bishop Larry Silva has invited the leaders of Catholic, Eastern rite, Protestant, Orthodox and other Christian churches to an hour of hymns, Scripture and prayer at the ecumenical Taize service in observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 7 p.m., Jan. 18, at the Newman Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
This will be the sixth straight year the Newman Center, the hub of the university’s Catholic campus ministry, will host the annual prayer. The service is open to the public.
The theme for the 2019 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is “Justice and only justice you shall pursue,” a quote from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 16:18-20.
“As Christians we gather each year to pray for growth in unity,” said the diocesan office of Worship, organizer of the event, in an email urging participation. “We do this knowing that our world is fractured, filled with injustices and inequalities that bring more divisions among the people of God. This year we are called more than ever to form a stronger and united bond of witness for justice so together we can become Christ’s healing grace for this broken world.”
Taize is the name of an ecumenical community of Catholics and Protestants in its namesake town of France. The Taize “prayer around the cross,” which will be incorporated in the service, lasts about an hour and includes chants, prayers, petitions, Scripture readings and periods of meditative silence.
Participants also have the opportunity to kneel and bow around a large iconographic cross displayed flat about a foot off the floor, to pray for their own personal intentions, for persecuted Christians and for healing of divisions among Christian denominations.
Before the Newman Center adopted the service, different Christian churches on Oahu took turns hosting the event. The Newman Center also hosts a Taize cross prayer service on Good Friday.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was started in 1908 by the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute. Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the prayer week and Pope Benedict XV in 1916 extended its observance to the universal church.
The “octave” of prayer runs from the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair on Jan. 18 to the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25.
The Newman Center is at 1941 East West Center Road. Free parking is available at St. Francis School, 2707 Pamoa Road.
For more information about the Jan. 25 prayer service, contact Easter Almuena at the diocesan Office of Worship, 585-3342, or ealmuena@rcchawaii.org. Or call the Newman Center at 988-6222.
