Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

On Thursday 19 January, the Chaplain-President was honoured to represent the Anglican Church at the annual service for Christian unity organised by the Comité Interecclésial de Bruxelles/Interkerkelijk Comité voor Brussel at a service of solemn vespers held in the Orthodox Cathedral of Archangels Michael and Gabriel Brussels. The service was presided by Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium, and Cardinal Jozef De Kesel preached. The Chaplain-President was accompanied by Canons Paul Vrolijk and John Wilkinson of Holy Trinity Brussels (Canon Wilkinson currently chairs the Comité Interecclésial) and the Revd Sunny Hallanan of All Saints' Waterloo. A wonderful gift was made by the Orthodox community to the chefs de culte present during the service: two stones taken from St Catherine's Monastery Sinai, traditionally the place of the Burning Bush (Exodus 3) and the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world, containing the oldest continuously used library in the world. Our picture shows Cardinal De Kesel and Metropolitan Athenagoras at the reception after the service.