After the Sunday Angelus on 24 September, the Holy Father renewed the invitation to participate in the Ecumenical Prayer Vigil, entitled “Together. Gathering of the People of God”, which will take place in St Peter’s Square next Saturday, 30 September, from 5pm to 7pm.
This ecumenical prayer vigil will be held in the presence of Pope Francis and various leaders of the world’s Christian Communions, in order to entrust to the Holy Spirit the work of the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (4-29 October 2023).
Fruit of a proposal by the Taizé Community, the Vigil was organised in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the Synod and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.
The Vigil will be the culmination of a weekend attended by thousands of young people of different Christian traditions from more than forty countries.
All are invited to participate in this moment of prayer.
The list of Christian leaders who have confirmed their participation:
From the Orthodox Church:
His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW I; His Beatitude THEOPHILOS III, Patriarch of Jerusalem; His Eminence GENNADIOS Stantzios, of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria; His Excellency NEKTARIJE, of the Serbian Orthodox Church; His Eminence SERAFIM, of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
From the Oriental Orthodox Churches:
His Holiness IGNATIUS APHREM II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch; His Grace Mar PAULUS BENJAMIN on behalf of His Holiness Mar Awa III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East; His Eminence Khajag BARSAMIAN, Representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church to the Holy See (Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin); His Grace ABUNE HERYACOS, of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
From the Western Communions:
His Grace Justin WELBY, Archbishop of Canterbury; Rev. Dr. Anne BURGHARDT, Secretary General of the Lutheran World Federation; His Grace Bernd WALLET, Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht; Rev. Dr. Jong Chun PARK, President of the World Methodist Council.
From the Evangelical-Pentecostals and Ecumenical Bodies:
Rev. Prof. Thomas SCHIRRMACHER, General Secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance; Rev. William WILSON, President of the Pentecostal World Fellowship; Rev. Dr. Elijah M. BROWN, General Secretary of the World Baptist Alliance; Rev. Kuzipa NALWAMBA (United Church in Zambia), on behalf of the World Council of Churches.
