Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park

In January, Augustana hosted a joyful evening of prayer for Christian Unity with an array of other faith communities – Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and other Protestants. While we did this, others across the country were doing so also. Below is a mosaic of photos from those gatherings, including one from us (bottom right).

Augustana’s gathering was organized by Pastor Goede and other leaders in The Initiative, a community committed to “walking in deeper friendship with Jesus and his followers, so that the love of Christ might exceed all divisions.” Here is the write-up from The Initiative’s executive director, the Reverend Scott Brill:

From the 18th to the 25th of January (and really all the way to the end of the month), Christians from communities all around the US and around the globe gathered to pray that other prayer that Jesus taught us – “Father… may they become completely one” (John 17:23). It was a week of powerful concerted prayer and of renewing old (and building new) friendships.

Starting with our own prayer get-together on Zoom on the 17th to pray for the week, folks from our Initiative community were able to participate in several of those gatherings, from the beautiful worship space of St. Andrew Russian Greek Catholic Church in El Segundo, CA (top left picture below) to Boston, where we had to pivot to Zoom at the last minute because of bad weather (top right). It included several places around Chicago, including a wonderful post-prayer meal on the Northside (middle), inspiring cross-denominational stories in Carol Stream (bottom left) and a sign of our shared baptism at Augustana Lutheran in Hyde Park (bottom right). And several other prayer liturgies in places like Atlanta and St. Louis.

May those prayers continue to bear much fruit and deepen us in love for one another in the year ahead!