CHRIST THE KING PARISH, TURNER’S CROSS
19th January, 2025
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr Noel O’Sullivan Mobile: 087-2610276 email: noscork@gmail.com
Website: turnerscross.com
Sacristy: Phone 4317263
Opening Hours, Monday to Thursday, 9.30 am –10.45 am.
Saturday, 5.15 pm – 6.45 pm; Sunday, 9.30 am – 1.00 pm.
Entrance Hymn: Holy God, we praise thy name
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 18th to 25th January
This year’s theme: Do you believe this?
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is a response to Christ’s prayer “that they all may be one” (John 17:21). It is an eight-day period of prayer in which all Christians are invited to participate. This year the ecumenical celebration has been prepared by the community of Bose, an ecumenical monastery of brothers and sisters in northern Italy. As we celebrate 1,700 years since the Council of Nicaea (325), the worship service has at its heart, the Nicene Creed. Reflecting this, the scripture readings for this year focus on belief. We are invited to reflect on the story of Martha’s confession of faith in Jesus as narrated in John 11:17-27. Each is called to sit with Jesus’ provocative question to Martha: “Do you believe this?” Click on the link for the official booklet: https://ctbi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/WP”CU-2025-English-Pamphlet-for-website.pdf
Much progress has been made in the last 100 years to bring all Christians together. One good example is the fact that the Baptism celebrated by all Christian denominations is mutually recognized. This means that if a Methodist wants to become a Catholic (or vice versa) the Baptism they received in their ‘mother’ church is accepted by the ‘adoptive’ church.
The Council of Nicea 325
This was the first Council of the Church and its teaching is accepted by all Christian denominations. So it is a strong basis on which to focus the week of prayer for Christian unity. Furthermore, this year is the 1700 anniversary of Nicea. The issue in question was that Jesus Christ was not fully divine, not equal to the Father. This view is particularly associated with Arianism. Arius (260-336) was a priest of Alexandria in Egypt who, quite late in life (318-320), provoked hostile reactions due to his teaching about the Son of God. Arius preached that Jesus was just a creature. The Father is the only God and the Son is inferior to him, created out of nothing before the world was made: ‘There was a time when he was not.’ The religious turmoil was now becoming a political problem and the Emperor Constantine called a Council, the first oecumenical council of the Church. The Council of Nicea taught that the Son was of the same substance as the Father, ‘consubstantial’ with the Father (homoousios). He is ‘of the substance of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father.’ The Council rejected the belief that the Son was created and that there was a time when he was not. The Son is co-eternal with the Father. Nicea marked the birth of a language that is properly dogmatic in the Church. It was the first time that an official and normative ecclesial text used words that didn’t come from Scripture, but from Greek philosophy.
Second Collection Today is for Diocesan Needs.
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Recessional Hymn: Now thank we all our God
Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices, Who wondrous things has done, In whom his world rejoices; Who from our mothers’ arms Has blessed us on our way With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today |
O may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us, With ever joyful hearts And blessed peace to cheer us, To keep us in his grace, And guide us when perplexed, And free us from all ills Of this world and the next. |