Day 7: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity / Ordination of Florence Li Tim-Oi (1907-1992)

  
God, you raised your Son Jesus to give hope for humanity and renewal to the earth. Continue to strengthen and unify your Church in its struggles that obscure the hope of the new life you offer. This we pray in the name of the Risen Lord, in the power of his Spirit. Amen.

"The first Christians' devotion to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of the bread and the prayers was made possible, above all, by the living power of the Risen Jesus. This power is still living and today's Christians witness to this. The light and hope of the Resurrection changes everything...

...The central Christian experience is that of passing from death to life. This is the abiding sign of God's steadfast love. It is the defining reality of all Christians...in baptism...we have died with Christ, and live to share his risen life..." (Week of Prayer Daily Scripture and Prayer Guide)

If ever there was a witness to the power of the living Risen Christ at work in a baptized Christian, it was Florence Li Tim-Oi! Named Tim Oi = Much-beloved Daughter by her father, Florence later chose her first name in honor of Florence Nightingale. At age 21, she wanted "to be a selfless lady like her", to serve. And serve she did in a lay capacity for the next 13 years. She really hadn't set out to be a deacon or a priest, but God led her, by successive steps, and through the tremendous upheavals of war, poverty, and uncertainty in her native land of China. She was ordained deacon in 1941, and in 1944, under unusual circumstances and with the concurrence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, she was ordained the first woman priest in the Anglican Communion.

At the conclusion of World War II, because her ordination was a matter of great controversy, she made the personal decision not to exercise her priesthood until it was acknowledged by the Anglican Communion. That took some 36 years, during which she was also persecuted by the Communist Red Guard in China! Nevertheless, she continued to labor as a servant of the Gospel in Macao, China, and in the Diocese of Montreal, Canada, where she eventually settled. Florence Li Tim-Oi lived firsthand in the spirit of Paul's words and in the spirit of all her forebears in the Communion of Saints, from the Church in Jerusalem onward: "For the love of God urges us on...So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us..."

Day 6: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity / Epiphany 3

 

From Week of Prayer for Christian Unity booklet:
Suggested readings: Jonah 2:1-9; Psalm 67:1-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Matthew 6:5-15

"It is prayer that empowers Christians for our mission together...The Psalm calls us to pray that God's face will shine upon us -- not only for our own benefit, but for the spread of His rule 'among all the nations.'"

Prayer is a part of the strength and power of mission and prophecy for the world. Paul instructs us to pray especially for those with power in the world so that we may live together in peace and dignity. Our own prayer for unity in Christ reaches out to the whole world.

In Matthew's Gospel we hear of prayer as a 'secret' power, born not from display or performance, but from a humble coming before the Lord. Jesus' teaching is summed up in the Lord's Prayer. Praying this together forms us as a united people who seek the Father's will, and the building up of His Kingdom here on earth, and calls us to a life of forgiveness and reconciliation."

Lord God our Father, we rejoice that in all times, places and cultures, there are people who reach out to you in prayer. Teach us to pray better as Christians together, so that we may always be aware of your guidance and encouragement through all our joys and distress, through the power your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Day 5: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity / St. Vincent of Saragossa (d. 304)

God of Hope, we praise you for your gift to us of the Lord's Supper, where, in the Spirit, we continue to meet your Son, the living bread from heaven. We pray that you will hasten the day when your whole church together shares the breaking of the bread. As we wait for that day may we learn more deeply to be a people formed by the Eucharist for service to the world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

What better way to be at one with one another than to share a meal, to bread break together. That is our renewed pledge today as we near the conclusion of this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In some sense we, as Jesus, become seed for making into the bread of our lives to be shared with one another. He told us that a seed needs first to fall into the ground and die, else it remains alone. Also, bread, if it's to give nourishment and strength, needs first to be chewed up and broken down, and consumed. In the One who modelled this for us, we become, as it were, bread for the world.

St. Vincent, deacon and martyr, who died in the same year as Agnes of Rome, entered into this process of being broken down in a very real and graphic way. As the eloquent spokesman of his bishop, Valerian, who had a speech impediment, Vincent boldly and truthfully gave witness to his faith in Jesus before the Roman officials. The price he paid was in being beaten, flayed, boiled, and stretched on a rack before he finally died. Never were Tertullian's words more true: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians."

Day 4: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity / St. Agnes of Rome (c. 292-305)

God of Justice, your giving is without bounds. We thank you that you have given what we need. Inspire us to be instruments of love, sharing all that you give us, as a witness to your generosity and justice. As followers of Christ, lead us to act together in places of want. We pray in the name of Jesus, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we reflect on the fellowship (koinonia) of the community of faith. Fellowship is an oft-used, sometimes overworked, word among church folks, and can have many meanings. Episcopalians' first thoughts probably turn to the ample spread of good food at Sunday coffee hours or at potlucks! But there are many other kinds of fellowship: the frequent coming together of the church community; the act of a church's members reaching out to people of other faiths or to people in the surrounding community for activities, projects, concerns, etc.; the oneness that we feel in sharing Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist; acts of visiting the sick, working in a food line for the needy, ministering to people in prison or their families. Jesus' reminder rings loud in our memory: "As you did it for one of these, the least of my sisters and brothers, you did if for me."

I was thinking of St. Agnes this morning and marvelling at and trying to figure out how a 13 year old girl came to have the courage and fearlessness to give her young life for Jesus. In his treatise On Virginity, the great Bishop Ambrose of Milan, writing only about 70 years after Agnes' martyrdom, also wonders about this. "The cruelty which did not spare even so young a child serves only to demonstrate more clearly the power of faith which found witness in one so young. There was not even room in her little body for a wound. Though she could barely receive the sword's point, she could overcome. Girls of her age tend to wilt under the slightest frown from a parent...But Agnes showed no fear...Too young to have any acquaintanceship with death, she nevertheless stood ready for it...Is this a new kind of martyrdom? The girl was too young to be punished, yet old enough to wear a martyr's crown...Everyone was weeping, but she herself shed no tears. The crowds marvelled at her spendthrift attitude to life, discarding it untasted, but as if she had lived it to the full. All were astonished that one not yet of legal age could give testimony to God..." We have no way of knowing how Agnes arrived at such spiritual maturity. Her fellowship with sister and brother Christians in Rome was the fellowship, the sharing of courageous example, of witnessing, literally martyria, to the One on whom she'd set her heart and her life.

Day 3: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity / St. Fabian (d. c. 253)

God of Light, we give you thanks for the revelation of your truth in Jesus Christ which we have received through the apostles' teaching. May your Holy Spirit continue to sanctify us in the truth of your Son, so that united in him we may grow in devotion to the Word, and together serve your Kingdom in humility and love. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

As I was watching the opening of the new season of American Idol last evening, I was struck by not only the talent, but by the rich stories which many of the young women and men brought to their interviews: a great mixture of hopes and dreams, challenges, sorrows, and determination. That really is what the Scriptures are all about. They're a collection of many kinds of human stories about a diversity of people, from the beginning of time onward, couched in all sorts of styles and genres. The one thing they have in common, however, the common thread which ties them altogether, is the story of God's redemption, of God's working in the lives of God's creation, of God's loving each of us to life. The stories continue with each new generation of the Church, down to the present. Our lives and stories are inextricably bound up with the people who've gone before us and with the people in the world who surround us at this moment, particularly those of the community of faith in Jesus the Christ. Perhaps we're far closer than six degrees of separation! Central to our lives together is the teaching which Jesus' apostles have handed down to us through each generation. The great Anglican preacher, Herbert O'Driscoll, once described it is a chain of outwardly extended hands through the centuries, reaching out with the Word of salvation, and traceable all the way back to "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith", the One bearing the nail-prints of death and resurrection. A goodly heritage, indeed!

As your story develops, and mine, ever notice how God has the knack of nudging us into the wrong place at the right time? Fabianus or Fabian, a lay person, certainly did one day in 236 as he was "just" visiting Rome. So happens that the bishop of Rome [the Pope], Antherus, had died, and on this day the people and clergy of Rome had gathered to select a new bishop. As Fabian stood looking on in the crowd, a pesky dove flew into the scene, circling above Fabian and eventually landing on his shoulder. Well, for highly excitable Italians, in the midst of an election, this could only have been a clear sign from God that the person on whom the dove landed was the person whom they were looking forward! After a shocked pause, the cry, which couldn't have been better scripted even on a Wayne's World episode, went up: "He is worthy! He is worthy!" Before Fabian could say "Party on!" he was whisked off to be ordained to the successive degrees of Holy Orders, consecrated, and began a 17 year reign as the 21st successor of St. Peter! Pope Fabian, among the many accomplishments of his pontificate, stood out as a defender of the apostolic teaching, confronting even one of the Numidian bishops of the Church, Privatus.  He understood that the apostles' teaching, the Good News, is, as Paul calls it, "the power of God for salvation", and in Isaiah's words, "a lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path".  May we, as the early Church of Jerusalem, as Fabian and our other forbears in the faith, be enthusiastically devoted to the apostolic teaching.

Day 2: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity / St. Wulfstan of Worcester (c. 1008-1095)

God, from whom all life flows in its rich diversity, you call your Church as the Body of Christ to be united in love. May we learn more deeply our unity in diversity and strive to work together to preach, and build up the Kingdom of your abundant love in all places. May we always be mindful of Christ as the source of our life together. We pray in the unity of the Spirit. Amen.

An ecumenical tale by an Episcopal priest regarding a local dilemma with a Lutheran pastor:
"We were to have a service in the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, and the Lutheran pastor was to take part in my church. He called to ask what he should wear, and I told him, 'Wear what you would wear for such an occasion in your own church.' 'Well,' he said, 'I'd wear a surplice and stole. What color stole would be appropriate?' 'This is Epiphany season,' I said, 'so we would wear green.' 'But for Epiphany season,' he said, 'we would wear white.' 'That's all right,' I said, 'it's also St. Paul's Day so I could wear white.' 'But if it's St. Paul's Day,' he said, 'we would wear red.' 

So we realized that if we wanted to do the same thing -- wear white stoles -- it would represent different purposes (St. Paul and Epiphany), but if we wanted to celebrate the same thing (St. Paul, for example), we would wear different colors. Thus, if we said the same thing, we would wear different things, but if we wore the same thing we would have to say different things. 

And that is a cautionary tale to bear in mind in all ecumenical conversation!"

We need to be reminded that Christian unity doesn't mean uniformity. The Church of Jerusalem was rich in diversity, and our Church today is globally becoming more richly diverse and inclusive by God's graceful prompting. "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." The Collect above sets the tone for our reflection on this day. St. Wulfstan, whom we also commemorate, was a fine example of a bishop who included all equally among his diverse flock, particularly through his great preaching ability. This was at a time when that was sometimes a delicate matter. He became bishop right on the cusp of the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066. Even though Wulfstan couldn't speak French, he nevertheless was allowed to remain as bishop of Worcester. He dealt graciously with William and the new regime in England, eventually becoming an entrusted colleague of William's and of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc. By the time William died in 1087, Wulfstan was the only remaining native British prelate.

John Wesley, Anglican priest and Methodist pastor, once said: "The pretences for separation are innumerable, but want of love is always the cause." That is because love unifies, even in the midst of great diversity. Throughout history the truly outstanding servants of God: the Pauls, the John Wesleys, the Mother Teresas, who have been called and sent by God, have always understood that the foundation of true Christian unity is love in action, love of God and love of one's neighbor, no matter how different.

The Confession of St. Peter - Beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Almighty and Merciful God, with great power you gathered together the first Christians in the city of Jerusalem. Grant that, like this first church in Jerusalem, we may come together to be bold in preaching and living the good news of reconciliation and peace wherever there is inequality and injustice. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who liberates us from the bondage of sin and death. Amen.

For this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Palestinian Christians from the Church in Jerusalem have selected the passage from Acts 2:42 as the week's theme: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." There's a wonderful link between the ancient church community of Jerusalem and each of our own churches, and between all the churches and the communion of saints, the assembly of holy ones in the heavenly New Jerusalem.

This year's theme is a simple one, focusing on the essentials of our faith: the teaching of Christ handed down through the ages; the communion and fellowship shared among Christ's followers; the Holy Eucharist, Christ's own Body and Blood; and prayer: the personal and communal relationship which we continually develop with Jesus the Savior. By reflecting anew, praying about, and putting into action, within each of our own contexts, these basics of faith, we strive to renew the unity and vitality of the Mystical Body of Christ, as we continue to struggle with our sisters and brothers throughout the world for justice, freedom and peace for all.

Recommended Scriptural readings:  Joel 2:21-22; 28-29, Psalm 46, Acts 2:1-12, John 14:15-21