Gracious and Almighty God, the Acts of the Apostles claims that at the beginning of the Christian movement, all the believers were together in one place, glorifying you and committing themselves to acts of self-sacrificial love for the sake of one another and all your people.
But the iron-hard cares of the world pried Christian hearts apart – geography, race and ethnicity, orientation and identification, our doctrinal battles, the cruel ambitions of people and states, disparities of wealth and educational attainment. All these things shattered the church into a chaos of uncountable denominations and sects.
Yet the mission of your church remains the same. You invite us through the risen Christ to glorify you and care for your people — no matter what language we speak, what songs we sing or prayers we pray, whether we look for authority to bishops or synods.
During the seasons of Advent and Christmas, you invite us to imagine your sovereign son descending on the wings of angels, coming among us to judge the nations, and to judge the church.
We give you thanks that Archbishop Hovnan and his colleagues have again brought us together as siblings in Christ. Our worship and fellowship are foretastes of the unity which is your commandment and our destiny.
If all is not well in our world, the wars and the injustice, help us see to the unity of the warring church. If we do not like our politics, nationally or locally, help us be better examples by seeing to the unity of the church. If we would have our neighbor behave differently, help us understand how our misbehaving churches may appear to our neighbor. Help us love our neighbor better by seeing to the unity of the church.
We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns, in perfect and peaceful community, with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
(My prayer for Christian unity and photos from Tuesday night’s 14th annual ecumenical Advent and Christmas service hosted by Abp Hovnan Derderian of the Armenian Apostolic Church at St. Leon’s Cathedral in Burbank)
