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Unity Pilgrim |
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....going to meet |
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| why? | |
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Division among Christians "openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world and damages that most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel to every creature". We in Ireland are not to blame for what has gone before us. Those who passed on the fractured Christian tradition acted in good faith.But the time has come for all the followers of Jesus to become disciples together - a faith community of friends. And then the Lord will heal the deep wounds of our divisions. Unity pilgrims link a Catholic parish with congregations of our Protestant brothers and sisters in a spirit of faith and friendship. They do so because they recognize that the command of Jesus "Love one another as I have loved you" applies to us not only as individuals but also as congregations of the Church. Since we are all his disciples, we need to meet in him. The time of "mutual enrichment" has come as Pope John Paul 2 told us. Unity pilgrims have first hand experience of this. Through the pilgrimages both they and the congregations they visit gradually experience a deep change of attitude. They begin to see themselves as for one another instead of against one another. This is the grace of the unity pilgrimage. The
wonder of the unity pilgrims is that they bring
ordinary people together in
God's love, joy and
peace. Over a few years the visits by parish unity pilgrims to the local
Protestant congregations can help transform the
whole community. |
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| How? | |
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For many years little groups of unity
pilgrims from Clonard Monastery have gone on Sundays to share in Morning
Services with Protestant congregations. Our pilgrimages began in the early 1980s with visits to Fitzroy Presbyterian Congregation in a spirit of friendship and faith. Then on Remembrance Sunday 1994 we began to visit the Shankill congregations, our neighbours on the other side of the Peace Line wall. Gradually, year by year, these pilgrim visits transformed our relationship with Fitzroy and with the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist congregations of the Shankill. In February 2003 our unity pilgrims spread their wings to parishes where the Clonard Parish Mission team was working at a particular time. In company with unity pilgrims from these Catholic parishes they began to visit Protestant congregations in those areas. From all this experience we have learnt a way of organizing unity pilgrimages which we would like to share with you. To form a permanent group of unity pilgrims in your parish, here are the steps we recommend: 1. Take the prayer of Fr Paul Couturier on this leaflet and make it your own. Then share it with friends in your parish. 2. When a group of you feel ready to go as unity pilgrims to a Protestant congregation talk to your parish priest about it. 3. In consultation with your parish priest and/or parish council decide on the congregation the unity pilgrims will be sent to visit in the name of the parish. 4. Arrange for the writing of a letter to the minister of that congregation proposing the unity pilgrimage for one of the three occasions mentioned overleaf - Unity Sunday, Trinity Sunday, Mission Sunday or for another more appropriate time. 5. When the Protestant congregation indicates that the proposed visit would be welcome, work out with the minister the details of the visit. 6. Arrange to have a blessing from your parish priest on the day of the pilgrimage before you leave for the Protestant congregation. 7. Go to the holy meeting place of your Protestant brothers and sisters as humble agents of the Holy Spirit who is within and between us all, making us one. 8. After being welcomed as you enter the church spread yourselves throughout the congregation so that your pilgrim group will meet more people. 9. Arrange for the unity pilgrims to meet again to reflect together on the visit and to look ahead to your next unity pilgrimage. Make the prayer of St Thomas More your own: "Lord, that which we pray for, help us to do"! |
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| who? | |
| Unity Pilgrims are humble agents of the Holy Spirit as he moves among us all stirring us to seek that compelling visible unity for which Jesus prayed "so that the world may believe that it was you who sent me" (John 17.21). | |
| where? | |
| The Protestant congregations that your parish will visit could be within your own parish boundary or some distance away. Local circumstances and your own past experience will determine where you choose to go | |
| when? | |
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Any time of the year is right for a unity
pilgrimage. But there are three periods during which such visits in faith
and friendship are particularly appropriate: 1. Unity Sunday of the Universal Week of Prayer (January 18th to 25th) to highlight our common call to that compelling visible unity for which Jesus prays. 2. Trinity Sunday to highlight our common Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3. Mission Sunday to highlight our common mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to the whole world. |
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