CONCLUSION OF PRAYER WEEK FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

VATICAN CITY, JAN 26, 2000 (VIS) - Yesterday evening in the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the Walls, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee 2000, presided at the second vespers of the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. The event marked the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

In his homily, Cardinal Etchegaray stated that "of all prayers, the prayer for unity is without doubt that which, so to say, beseeches the most." He asked the Lord: "Cause us to enter into Your prayer for unity to the point that, together in You, we may be one in Your Spirit and in the glory of Your Father."

"The path to unity," the cardinal went on, "does not initially mean that Christians should look one another more closely in the eye. ... Rather, above all, it means looking together towards the Lord and holding out our hands to Him, in common obedience to the Holy Spirit sent by Him."

He said that "ecumenical prayer is not a purely spiritual practice, reserved for those who cannot do anything else in favor of unity. It must inspire all Christians to discover as well as to embrace the advances (that have been made) at the level of common thought and action."

May this afternoon's prayer, concluded Cardinal Etchegaray, "help us to look with faith at the unity already achieved over a few years: Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, Etchmiadzin, Constantinople, Wittenberg, Canterbury, Geneva, all cities which up until now were distant from one another, now seem to be closer together, because they are closer to Jerusalem, the land of Christ!"

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