• Ecumenical celebrations on the theme of the Samaritan woman at the well can also challenge Christians to “give equal standing” to women in the different Churches today. From January 18th to 25th, Christians in many countries around the world mark the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, reflecting together on how to overcome the obstacles that still divide believers of the many different denominations. For this year’s celebration, an ecumenical group in Brazil has chosen the words of Jesus asking the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, encouraging her to begin a conversation with him, challening the cultural, religious and social conventions of his day.

    To look deeper into this theme and its message for the ecumenical movement today, Philippa Hitchen spoke to Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity…

    Bishop Farrell says the dynamism of all ecumenical meeting and dialogue is the interaction between what the Churches have in common and the differences that keep them separated. In the story of the Samaritan woman, he notes, Jesus walks through a land that is not his own and meets somebody who belongs to a different religion and culture. As Jesus asks her a question and she answers, he says, the two enter into a discussion which models the continual ecumenical study and discussion of how we can overcome the things that keep us apart

    Asked whether Jesus’ challenge to gender stereotypes of his day is a challenge to Christians to reconsider the role of women in the Churches today, Bishop Farrell replies’ “I’m sure you can say that is true”. He notes the reaction of the disciples who return from the town and are surprised to see Jesus talking to the woman at the well. He says we are still “in the position of those disciples” and he adds it’s necessary to overcome that surprise “if we want to give equal standing and a proper place to women in our Church and in the Christian world”.

    Asked about the difficult and sometimes violent reactions of rival Churches in Brazil today, Bishop Farrell says there’s a great sense of rivalry and intruding of one community on another in Brazil. That’s one of the reasons that inspired the group which prepared this year’s prayer resources to insist on the idea that there has to be a mutual willingness to meet and speak together in order to resolve the differences between us. He says when we see many Catholics leaving the Church, we may feel upset or hurt but instead of asking what’s wrong with the communities where they are going, we should ask what’s wrong with us that they don’t feel at home here…

    Finally Bishop Farrell speaks of a joint initiative that the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation is working on ahead of the 2017 anniversary of the Reformation. That is a very important anniversary, he insists, because it’s the first time a centenary of Luther’s protest has been celebrated in the ecumenical era. He points to the joint document called ‘From Conflict to Communion’ which he describes as “a map of where we’d like to be in 2017”, but in the meantime the two Churches have decided to hold an international event in 2016 to make local churches more aware of how they can celebrate this event together too. 

    Source: Vatican Radio