WCC News: Team from Cuba begins drafting Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials for 2028

A team from Cuba has joined an international editing team to begin drafting the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials for 2028. The resources are being prepared jointly with Catholic and Protestant Christians from Cuba, including the staff and students of the Seminario Evangélico de Teología in Matanzas City.  The international editing team of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2028 resources convening at the St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida (US) from 23-27 August. Photo: WCC 26 August 2026 The theological seminary in Matanzas City is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2026. Local clergy from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Matanzas are also part of the Cuban drafting team. The editing team is convening its annual meeting at the St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, a Roman Catholic seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida (US) from 23-27 August. The theme for 2028 is “You give them something to eat,” based on Mark 6:37. President and rector of the St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Very Rev. Alfredo I. Hernández said: “It has been a privilege for St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary to host the international team charged with preparing materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2028. Our bilingual seminary has been an appropriate place to welcome a group that was originally scheduled to meet in Cuba. As a Cuban American myself, it has been a particular joy to welcome the members of the Cuban delegation, Catholic and Protestant, all of them from my parents’ home province of Matanzas. When January 2028 comes around, we will have a particular impetus to devote ourselves to praying with the theme: ‘You give them something to eat.’” The meeting was chaired jointly by Rev. Dr Mikie Roberts, World Council of Churches programme executive for Spiritual Life and Faith and Order and Rev. Fr Martin Browne (Order of Saint Benedict) of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.  Roberts, in reflecting on the theme chosen for 2028, said: “While the 6th World Conference on Faith and Order in 2025 raised the question – Where now for visible unity? – the 2028 resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity invite us to explore how we can pray and work together for Christian unity using a diaconal model. The Seminario Evangélico de Teología has for 80 years played a vital role in fostering diaconal ecumenism, which has been strengthened the prophetic and united witness of Christians in Cuba.”  The resources will be translated and distributed after the 2027 observances of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the Northern Hemisphere in January and later in the Southern Hemisphere after the feast of Pentecost.  Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2027 resources available worldwide (WCC news release, 19 June 2026) Learn more about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland