Why the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Still Matters to Me
Every year, when the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity comes around, I notice a quiet shift in my heart.
As a Methodist, I love our hymns, our emphasis on grace, our insistence that faith should be lived out in the world. However this week gently reminds me that God has never been limited to my tradition—or yours. God has always been bigger than our labels.
I’ve prayed in rooms where the words felt unfamiliar and the rhythms weren’t my own. And yet, something deeply familiar was still there: people longing for Christ, people hoping the church can be a sign of healing in a fractured world. In those moments, I’m reminded that unity doesn’t mean erasing who we are. It means showing up as we are and trusting the Spirit to do the connecting.
John Wesley’s generous instinct—“If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand”—feels especially alive during this week. We don’t have to agree on everything to pray together. We don’t even have to resolve centuries of difference. Sometimes unity begins simply by listening, by blessing rather than judging, by choosing love over suspicion.
What I appreciate most is how practical this unity can be. When Christians pray together, it becomes easier to serve together. Hunger, injustice, loneliness—these don’t care about denominational boundaries. And honestly, the world doesn’t need a divided church arguing with itself. It needs a church learning how to love well.
For me, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is less about grand statements and more about small, hopeful acts: lighting a candle, sharing silence, speaking Christ’s name alongside someone who says it a little differently than I do.
And every year, I walk away grateful—still Methodist, still rooted, but a little more open, a little more humble, and a little more convinced that God’s grace is already at work, drawing us closer than we think.
Leonora
