Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

January 18-25, 2026

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is a response to Christ's prayer “that they all may be one" (John 17:21). It is an eight-day period of prayer in which all Christians are invited to participate. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity extends an invitation to draw upon our shared Christian heritage and to delve more deeply into our fellowship in Christ, which unites Christians worldwide. The week is celebrated each year from January 18-25, concluding on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. 

Theme

Each year, a different theme is chosen for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The theme for 2026 is “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you are called to the one hope of your calling." It is from Ephesians 4:4 in which the Apostle Paul reminds the early Christians in Ephesus of the unifying power of the Holy Spirit. The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches say the passage was chosen because "St. Paul’s epistles stress the importance of unity within the Church, urging us to live worthy of our calling with humility, gentleness, patience, and love (Ephesians 4:1).

The theme was prepared by the faithful of the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with their brothers and sisters of the Armenian Catholic and evangelical churches.

Biblical Text (Ephesians 4:1-13)

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high, he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”

(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

New Revised Standard Version

[Read more about the theme / External Link)

History

The history of the week dates back to late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1894, Pope Leo XIII encouraged the practice of a Prayer Octave for Unity and encouraged Catholics to recite the Rosary for the intention of Christian unity. A little more than a decade later, two Americans, Father Paul James Wattson and Sister Lurana White, co-founders of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, started a prayer movement to pray for the return of non-Catholic Christians to the Holy See. The two were Episcopalians who converted to Catholicism. In 1907, a conversation between Father Wattson and an English clergyman, Reverend Spencer Jones, led Reverend Jones to suggest that a day be set aside for prayer for Christian unity. Father Wattson agreed but proposed an octave of prayer between the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair on January 18 and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25.  The first "Church Unity Octave" was observed in 1908. After Father Wattson and Sister Lurana became Catholic, Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the Church Unity Octave, and in 1916, Pope Benedict XV extended its observance to the universal Church.

While the Catholic Church adopted the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, it was Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons in France, who, in 1935, helped extend its reach to other Christian faiths. He promoted a "Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" on the basis that it was the Lord's will - “Our Lord would grant to his Church on earth that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when, on the eve of his Passion, he prayed that all might be one.” It was a successful way of uniting all Christians in the same prayer.

Prayer for the Week

Resources

Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute (External Link)

International Text for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2026 (Vatican Link)

Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity

Theme for 2026 (External Link)

World Council of Churches