January 18 to 25, 2022 are days dedicated to an octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. The theme for 2022 is “We Saw the Star in the East, and We Came To Worship Him.”

In the SACBC region by design or coincidence the week of prayer for Christian unity happens exactly in the same days of the Plenary Meetings of the SACBC. Vatican News reported that all bishops responsible for ecumenism, Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Grech, General Secretary of the Synod of the Bishops, offered suggestions aimed at implementing the ecumenical dimension of the synodal process in the local churches. The two Cardinals wrote: “Both synodality and ecumenism are processes of walking together.”

In that same ecumenical spirit and Christian unity on Thursday, 20 January, during the plenary there will be a moment of ecumenism sharing on synodality.

The 2022 Prayer for Christian Unity:

Heavenly Father,
as the Magi journeyed towards Bethlehem led by the star,
so by your heavenly light,
guide the Catholic Church to walk together with all Christians during this time of synod.

As the Magi were united in their worship of Christ
lead us closer to your Son and open our treasures in an exchange of gifts,
so that we become a sign of the unity that God desires for his Church and the whole creation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.