Weekly Greeting - October 3, 2025
The first World Communion Sunday was celebrated in 1933 at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. The following year more churches participated, and in 1940 the National Council of Churches gave its endorsement to the observation of World Communion Sunday. Since then it has been celebrated around the world on the first Sunday of October, reminding us that no matter where we are in the world, Christians have this feast in common.
The focus of our worship on Sunday will be Jesus’s prayer for unity in John’s gospel (John 17:20-26). In that text Jesus connects the dots between unity among all believers and the world’s recognition of God’s love in us. It sounds like a pipe dream, doesn’t it? The Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates that there are at least 45,000 Christian denominations around the world.
45,000.
Was Jesus naïve? Or foolish?
While I personally cannot begin to comprehend unity among 45,000 Christian denominations, I also refuse to believe that Jesus either didn’t foresee or refused to imagine the kind of splintering that exists among Christians today. There must be something to his prayer for unity even if it seems impossible to us.
And so I continue to trust that Jesus knew what he was talking about — and that perhaps he prayed for unity because he knew that we would start to disagree as soon as he left us alone. And perhaps if Jesus prayed for it, then we should pray for it, too, regardless of how impossible it seems.
See you Sunday!
Mary Beth