As part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the different Christian Denomination in Tripoli, Libya, organised four prayer meetings together. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated between the 19th and 25th of January, this year was focused on the question taken from the Book of Micah: “What does the Lord ask of us?” All resources were prepared by an ecumenical group of students in Southern India.
There are six Christian Denominations in Tripoli: the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Coptic-Orthodox Church, the Grek-Orthodox Church, the Union Church and the Evangelical Christian Fellowship.
The first prayer meeting was celebrated in the Union Church premises on Sunday 20th January; the second, on Wednesday 23rd January, was celebrated at the Anglican Church of Christ the King, the former Franciscan Church of Saint Mary of the Angels in the Medina of Tripoli; the 3rd prayer meeting was celebrated at San Francesco Catholic Church on Thursday 24th January. The last of the ecumenical prayer meetings was celebrated at the premises of the Evangelical Christian Fellowship.
The Ecumenical Service in San Francesco Catholic Church was led by Bishop Giovanni Martinelli OFM, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, together with the Franciscan Friars and the Filipino Choir. The different leaders of the Churches each gave a short reflection. In his homily Bishop Martinelli stressed the importance of Christian unity in Libya, where Christians are all foreigners, in a very small minority, yet all called to support each other and be a beacon of peace and reconciliation.
