To mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ends today, Righead United Reformed Church and St Mark’s Episcopal Church held a worship event together in East Kilbride called “Walking Together”.
Rev Lindsey Sanderson, minister at Righead URC and East Mains URC, said: “This was the first time the two congregations had shared in a joint activity. The event drew on the sub-themes offered in the Week of Prayer material, which came from India this year and invited people to walk together in conversation, prayer and action. Some 25 people from the two congregations participated and spent time at various stations located in the hall.
“‘Walking Together in Conversation’ and ‘Walking as friends of Jesus’ invited us to begin finding out about each other’s experience of church and what was important to us. ‘Walking with brokenness’ and ‘Walking beyond barriers’ invited us to pray for people and places in our world including our sister congregations in East Kilbride. ‘Walking Towards Freedom’ and ‘Walking in Solidarity’ invited us to learn more about the Dalit community in India and the Faith in Action calendar resource produced by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
“We rounded our time off together by ‘Walking in Celebration’ and sharing a time of fellowship together. It is hoped that the success of this event will be carried forward to other events as we continue to build relationships between our two congregations.”
This is so very encouraging to hear – especially at a time when A lot of the ‘steam’ has gone out of ecumenical activity for me, both locally and nationally. I wish the two congregations every success in walking together in conversations and building ever more solid, lasting and deep relationship.