A ‘Day of Prayer’ was held on the occasion of the ‘Prayer Week’ for the Christian Union at the Saint George Greek Catholic Church in the İskenderun district of Hatay.
Because of the “Week of Prayer” for the Christian Union, churches choose a sentence from the Bible each year. This year’s sentence was determined as ‘We Saw His Star in the East and We Came to Worship Him…’.
On this special day, Anatolian Apostle Vicar and Bishop Monsignor Paolo Bizzeti, Iskenderun Catholic Church Fathers Dariusz Dogondke and Antuan Ilgit, Hatay Armenian Churches and Iskenderun Church Spiritual Leader Father Avedis Tabasian came together with the members of the congregation at the Iskenderun Saint George Greek Catholic Church and prayed.
At the Christian Union Prayer Event, Patriarch of Armenian Catholics of Cilicia, XXI. (21.) Raphael Bedros’s following words at the opening of the prayer week for Christian Unity in Lebanon were also read;
“Our Lord, Christ Jesus, was born and was crucified for the salvation of all nations and all mankind, not for a particular group or elite. Jesus Christ was born for all of us, not just one group, suffered persecutions, was crucified, and died for the sins of all of us.”
On the Day of Prayer in Iskenderun, two short passages about the phrase “Bible” recommended by Middle Eastern Christians for this year, and after both readings, the Lord’s prayer was said together. After the special readings for today, prayers and supplications were presented to God.
In the prayer and supplication part, first the fathers came to the pulpit and lit a candle in front of the Holy Cross, and then each prayed in their own language. After the priests, some congregation members also lit candles and prayed. Supplications and Prayers were expressed in Armenian, Italian, Polish and Persian languages besides Turkish.
The “Prayer for the Christian Unity” event held at the Iskenderun Saint George Greek Catholic Church with the participation of a small number of congregation members ended with the reading of St. Francis’ Prayer. (SAT-7 Turk/İlyas Edip TERBİYELİ-İskenderun)
