Celebrate Epiphany with brothers and sisters around the world, as together we follow Christ, the light to the nations.
This Epiphany, we're focusing on the importance of being part of a worldwide Church, sharing in mission with our partner dioceses, agencies and parish links across the world.
We're providing four weeks of reflections and collects, as well as liturgy for a short candle lighting service, to be used in parishes from the second Sunday of January onwards, in whatever way best suits you and your congregation. Resources are coming from all corners of the globe via our link dioceses partnerships in Vaxjo, Nandyal, Kimberley & Kururman, and Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
We'll send out the resources via each week's eNews and add them below each Monday, ready to use that Sunday or at another time that works for you.
25 January - Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
One body, one spirit, one hope... Called to maintain unity in the bond of peace
Dr Marina Ngursangzeli Behera, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, reflects on Ephesians 4 and how Christ represents all of us.
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, my name is Marina Ngursangzeli Behera, and I'm a Presbyterian from Northeast India and for a little over eight years have been working at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, OCMS. I've been invited to reflect on the theme of the week: one body, one spirit, one hope, called to maintain unity in the bond of peace.
This theme is based on Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 to 6:
"There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
I experience some of what is called for in these verses at OCMS.
A global fellowship
Our community at OCMS is made up of people from many Christian traditions and backgrounds, a truly global fellowship. Many of our doctoral candidates would be called cross-cultural missionaries in the traditional sense. They live and work outside the cultures in which they were raised.
In such a context, the question we often grapple with are:
- How do we do theology in ways that are relevant to the place we find ourselves in?
- How does that place reshape the theology we have brought with us?
- And how do these theologies engage one another, African with British and British with those emerging from places such as the Philippines or Cambodia?
These questions cannot be answered from a single tradition or even a single location. It requires dialogue, and that dialogue only flourishes when we recognise that we are part of one body, animated by one spirit, held together in one home.
A time of meeting
Earlier, Christian unity was often discussed within large seemingly unified traditions. Church was here, mission was over there - yet mission itself has contributed to a beautifully mixed body of Christ, just as migration. Nowhere is this more evident than here in Oxford and its surroundings, where a multitude of denominations and expressions of faith coexist alongside people of other faiths. We no longer live in a time when mission is just about sending. We live in a time of meeting, of many expressions of Christian faith and practice, sharing the same space.
We confess we are one body, but we also know how easily confessional boundaries align with political ones, sometimes even becoming complicit in division or conflict, as we have seen in situations like in the Ukraine conflict.
Closer to home, even within our churches, we struggle with the differences in how faith is expressed. For some, worship must be loud and expressive. For others, it is silent, meditative. These are not just stylistic differences. They reflect different ways of life, different spiritual rhythms, different experiences of the world, and different dialects of faith. It is in this diversity that unity is most tested and most needed, so that the one body of Christ is a living witness to the environment.
How Christ represents us
I believe that too often we focus on how we represent Christ in our traditions, our theologies, and our worship style. Ephesians 4 can encourage us to reflect less on how we represent Christ and more on how Christ represents us. Christ does not represent only the ones who get it right or who worship the way we do.
Christ represents all of us: those who pray aloud, those who whisper, those who sing in other languages, and those who carry their faith quietly. And if we truly believe this, then unity is not something we manufacture, it is something we receive.
Grace has been given
As we continue to verse 7, in Ephesians 4, we read:
"But to each one of us, grace has been given, as Christ apportioned it."
In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, may we remember we are one body, not because we always agree, but because we belong to the one who holds us all. May we make space not only for one another's fate, but for one another's lives. And may we let Christ represent us so that through our differences, the spirit may still speak peace. Thank you.
Collect from Bishop Garth Minott, Bishop of Kingston, Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands
God of unity, grace and love,
the creator of all that is seen and unseen,
you call all people of the world,
indeed, all of creation into unity, with the Trinity.
Give us grace to take seriously the divisions within and between the Body of Christ throughout the world.
Take away from us all hatred, prejudice and malice,
and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord.
Place within our hearts the will, purpose and pleasure,
to strive after our call to live the unity we have in the one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and creator of all.
Help us to live in that unity,
built on an aspiration of one heart, one soul, one mind and one love;
united in one holy bond of truth, peace and of a charitable spirit.
With one mouth and one will we glorify you our God,
with the hope of a fully united church,
through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
throughout all ages.
Amen.
18 January - Christ, the light of the nations, calls us all to follow him
Christ gives grace and strengthens the church
Veronica Motlogeloa, PA to Bishop Brian Marajh, and the Revd James Dwyer share short reflections on Christ, the light of nations, in a short video.
Download the video to show in your church or prayer group.
Veronica
Christ the light of the nations calls us all to follow him. Kreste lesedi la ditshaba o re gwetlha go mo latela.
For God so loved the world that he gave us his only son, Jesus Christ, to be a light in our paths and our daily lives. Christ is our only true light and whoever follows him will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Kreste lesedi la rona! Christ our light.
James
When I was much younger at primary school, I remember doing an experiment with a globe that span and a torch, a flashlight, and we had to hold the torch up here and spin the globe around, and, as we did so, try and map the course that the sun takes every day and the earth takes around the sun, giving us day and night and seasons throughout the year as well.
That experiment came back into my mind as I was thinking of these verses, as we are called to follow Christ, who is the light of the nations, to all that lies ahead of us.
We might remember Jesus' description of himself as the light of the world, or John's description of Jesus, where he says that a light has come into the world, a light that no darkness can ever overcome. There is such joy in knowing that for all of our nations, for all of our cultures, for every tribe and for every tongue, there is the same Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose light shines in our world and in our darkness. And he calls us to follow him, to follow his light, to take our steps after his steps and to be led into life everlasting.
Christ, the light of the nations, calls us to follow him.
Collect from Bishop Brian Marajh, Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman
Gracious God, Father and Mother of all,
We, as sisters and brothers in Christ, together are called, as followers of your Son, Jesus the Christ, to be Christ's light among all the nations of the world.
As we reflect on your servant's prophetic call, inspire us to share your love and reconciliation with all creation. May we heed Christ's invitation to "come and see," and in doing so, deepen our unity as a diverse and vibrant community of believers.
Strengthen us by your grace, that we may support one another in faith and action, becoming a source of hope and light in our communities. Help us to live out our identity as saints, enriched by your gifts, and to bear witness to your salvation that extends to the ends of the earth.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.
11 January – Baptism of Christ
Called by baptism into the one, worldwide Body of Christ
Bishop Mary invites you to join us in four weeks of dedicated prayer, fellowship and revelation with our brothers and sisters worldwide, in a short video.
Download the video to show in your church or prayer group.
Over Christmas we focus on revealing Jesus, the Word made flesh, in our particular places - in our parishes, churches, schools and chaplainces. Through Nativity plays, Christingles, carol services, and even carols by the fish and chip van (just ask the vicar of Basildon). Through all these events, through this worship, we say that God has come amongst us, that God is born for us.
At Epiphany, we're asked to shift our focus to widen our horizons. As we think about Jesus being revealed to the nations, we're invited to re-engage with the worldwide church of which we are one small part. And so this Epiphany, to help you do that, we've created some resources.
We'll be posting more videos with perspectives on the worldwide church. And we've created a simple liturgy where you're invited to light a candle, to remember that Jesus is the light of the world, and then to pray one of the collects written by our partners, each speaking into the readings for that Sunday.
If you have partners who work in mission fields across the globe, you might also like to take epiphany as a particular time to renew your commitment to them, to learn more from them. All of this will help us live out what we say we believe when we say the Creed together: 'We believe in the communion of saints', we say, this gathering of God's people across time and space.
This communion of saints is a foretaste of what we read about in Revelation, when we learn that John sees that in heaven people will worship God from every tribe and language and people and nations.
So may Epiphany be a time of revelation for you as you learn from sisters and brothers across the worldwide church. Think a fresh about what you could do to support them and pray for the time that is coming when together we will worship God in heaven. Happy Epiphany.
Collect from the Revd Mattias Östborg, Diocese of Växjö (Link Co-ordinator)
Merciful God,
you showed us who you are at the River Jordan;
keep showing yourself to us wherever we are in the world.
Help us to be like John the Baptist in the wilderness:
to speak up for your will in this hurting world.
Guide us in everything we do to clear the path for you.
Help us Christians all over the world to stick together,
to be that sign of hope and light everyone needs.
Let us work together for a world
where all people love you and each other.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.