03 Jul 2019

The Reconciling Christianities project grew from a desire to test the possibility that as Christian faith leaders we could find a route to discussing our very real differences in ways which could ultimately inform the ongoing discussions about faith in contemporary Ireland.

The gatherings were a small group of Christian faith leaders from a variety of traditions and very busy lives who met once a month during October– December 2017 and then for a 24 hour residential in January 2018. Each gathering was shaped around a Gospel narrative and ended with an examination of a different prayer form.

We engaged in spirited discussion on the selected texts conscious of how our various traditions often threaten the other in our readings of the text. We sought from the beginning to affirm the credibility of each others confession of faith and to avoid the forms of reading which excluded. Each session began by posing a question from the text that highlighted our differences and then explored how we could hold those differences in a way that bore fruitful witness to our Christianities.

When the time for conversation was ended each participant was given time and space to reflect and to compose a prayer response to the conversation. These compositions were then read or prayed in plenary session together. Over the course of our gatherings we experimented with collects as well as prayers of confession, thanksgiving and petition.

These times together were characterised by hospitality and generosity.The document that emerged is a form of project report in that it gathers together some of the elements of our meetings and conversations. In particular we have curated here the written prayers of participants across the four events. We are delighted and honoured that all our participants have consented to their prayers being published in this way.

The document is available for download HERE

The project was enabled by the generous support of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary.