Leaders and representatives of more than a dozen Christian denominations joined with members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for an ecumenical worship service in Sydney’s Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel.
The service was adapted from resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is happening this week.
Among the guests taking part in the service were National Council of Churches in Australia president Rev John Gilmore, NCCA general secretary Liz Stone, Uniting Church of Australia president Rev Charissa Suli and Archbishop Mar Meelis Zaia of the Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East.
Reflecting on the evening, Rev. Charissa Suli said:
“Gathering alongside Christian leaders from across Australia was a powerful reminder that, even across our differences, we are united in Jesus Christ and called to walk together in hope, love, justice, and peace.”
In the homily, Lismore Catholic Bishop Greg Homeming OCD spoke of poet and shoemaker Hans Sachs, who featured in Richard Wagner’s 1868 opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
“In that, at a certain point, Hans Sachs has a monologue, an extraordinary aria, which he sings alone … ‘madness, madness, everywhere there is madness’,” Bishop Homeming said.
“We are at a time in the world where we could all say with him, ‘madness, madness’.
“You don’t have to look very far. It is everywhere. Anyone who can think ‘I can make peace by bombing people until they’re totally obliterated’ – that is absolute madness.”
Bishop Homeming said we are called to live in such a way that “madness gives way to light”.
“We are called to experience the darkness and in that darkness be light,” he said. “And what does that mean for us?
“We gather together this evening because we all have one thing in common – we have Jesus Christ and he’s the light that has come into the darkness.
“I think at this time more than ever this is something which we must take to heart because in the midst of a world full of madness there are only two possibilities given to us.
“The first is we must look to God, and for us that means look to Jesus Christ to walk with him and stand with him.
“And the other thing which madness calls forth through us is love. Two things: God and love.”
The service was the initiative of the Catholic Bishops Commission for Christian Unity and Inter-religious Dialogue.
The bishops and guests shared a meal after the service.
Source: Cathnews & UCA