The theme of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2026 is:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as your vocation has called you to one hope” (Eph 4:4).

Celebrated from 18 to 25 January, between the feasts of the Chair of Saint Peter and the Conversion of Saint Paul, this week of prayer “invites the faithful to draw on a common patrimony and to deepen communion in Christ, who unites Christians throughout the world,” as Vatican News notes.

According to Marco Gnavi, diocesan delegate for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, “prayer asks us to go beyond ourselves, to move towards one another without forgetting our roots, by accepting Christ’s invitation to walk towards unity.” This need for unity, he adds, concerns not only Christians, but the whole world. In this perspective, the magisterium of Pope Leo XIV invites us to consider “peace as the fruit of the search for unity, first among ourselves and then among peoples.”

It should be recalled that this year’s prayers and reflections for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were prepared by the faithful of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in collaboration with their brothers and sisters from the Catholic Church and the Armenian Evangelical Churches. The introductory text strongly emphasizes that “unity is a divine mission which, more than a simple ideal, lies at the heart of our Christian identity.”

It is in this spirit that the Society of African Missions (SMA) explicitly invites its members to collaborate “with other Christian Churches to bear witness together to the Gospel” (Constitutions and Laws, 18.3). This missionary orientation is expressed concretely in many mission contexts through participation in, and at times the organization of, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, based on texts prepared jointly by the World Council of Churches and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

Beyond this annual observance, the search for unity remains a permanent commitment of the SMA. Aware of the close link between unity and peace, the Society has in recent years implemented the Shalom Network for Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation (REST-COR), whose mission is to prepare hearts and minds for authentic reconciliation and true unity, in service of peoples and the Church’s evangelizing mission.

Resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2026 | World Council of Churches

Pierre-Paul Anani Dossekpli