100 years of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity!
Each year in many countries one week is set aside by a wide range of churches to pray specifically for the unity of the churches. The idea was born in 1908 - which means that 2008 is the centenary of the global initiative of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Click here for some history and background concerning this initiative.

In the Northern Hemisphere the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated from 18 to 25 January. In Australia it is in May, often linked to Pentecost.

This year: 4-11 May
In 2008 the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was celebrated in Australia from May 4-11. As usual, the materials being prepared by one country (this year it is the USA) were adapted for the Australian context. This work was done by the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), and the materials are still available online. Click here for details of materials. 

QCT still has about 300 prayer cards - on one side they show the attractive Centenary poster, which is a colourful collage of posters from previous years. On the other, the following prayer for unity is printed:

Loving God,
in the perfect unity of your being,
keep our hearts so burning with
the desire and hope for unity
that we will never stop praying
and working for the sake of your gospel.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen.

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17)

These cards can be ordered at half price from QCT: only $4:00 for 20 cards. Please phone 07 3369 6792 or email Jela: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

QCT celebrates the centenary
An ecumenical service to celebrate the centenary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was held on Friday 9 May 2008.
To read about this service, click here.

Townsville celebrated the centenary with a service on Pentecost Sunday, 11 May - click here to read about it.

Click here to read how the North-East Brisbane Interchurch Council celebrated the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

"Pray without ceasing"
The scripture verse chosen as the lead verse for the 2008 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is 1 Thessalonians 5:17: "Pray without ceasing".

You might ask: why pray for Christian unity only in the one week - especially if the motto is "Pray without ceasing"?

The motto was chosen to emphasize that our spiritual life together in prayer is not something we can turn on and off. Prayer needs to be a habit, part of our everyday life, a way of being. The Week of Prayer is celebrated to provide an opportunity for Christians and church congregations to come together intentionally once a year around the theme of their common faith and faith journey.

The nuts and bolts of unity
Praying simply for "unity" between Christians can seem very abstract. We need to spell out what that means in our local context, in our denominations at district and state level, in a global context. Starting at home, we can ask ourselves a few questions.

Do people in your congregation know what is happening in the other denominations around your area? How can you find out? How can you help your own people to pray for your brothers and sisters around the corner? How can you show concern if they are struggling with particular issues (e.g. illness of a key person in the congregation, financial burdens, grief)? How can you show that you rejoice with them - e.g. on a significant anniversary? 

Prayer can mean many things
And what does "prayer" mean? Within the member churches and communities of QCT there is a richness of different understandings of prayer, from the silent, listening prayer of the Religious Society of Friends to the liturgical prayers of our Orthodox sisters and brothers, steeped in ancient Christian wisdom. Would it be possible for congregations in your area to share with each other what prayer means to each of them?

Reach out to your neighbours now
In other words, in the year of the hundredth anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, why not make prayer the focus of your interaction with other churches, locally and at other levels? Why not reach out for the first time to other Christians around you to find out how you can pray with and for each other?

And then watch how out of that prayer, actions and relationships grow.

Last but not least: tell us about it - we love to share stories on this website.