Director Laferty, Prof. Park Participate in Ecumenical Prayer Vigil in Historic Square in the Vatican During Synod on Synodality

ROME (MEOR) – On 11 October 2024, the Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, and the Rev. Prof. Jong Chun Park, immediate past president of the World Methodist Council, participated in an ecumenical prayer vigil in the Square of the Roman Protomartyrs in the Vatican. The square commemorates where the Apostle Peter was executed. The prayer vigil was held on the 62nd anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council for delegates and experts to the 16th Ordindary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, called the Synod on Synodality. The service was led the fraternal delegates to the Synod along with permanent representatives of Christian world communions in Rome and local Roman ecumenical leaders. Prof. Park is the fraternal delegate to the Synod and Rev. Laferty represents the World Methodist Council in Rome.

Pope Francis preached, saying

the unity of Christians is essential to their witness: unity is for the sake of mission….the unity of Christians is essential to their witness: unity is for the sake of mission. “That they may all be one… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21).  This was the conviction of the Council Fathers when they declared that our division “scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature” (Unitatis Reintegratio, 1). The ecumenical movement evolved from the desire to bear common witness: to witness alongside one another, not standing apart from or, worse yet, at odds with one another. In this place, the Roman protomartyrs remind us that today too, in many parts of the world, Christians of different traditions are laying down their lives together for their faith in Jesus Christ, embodying an ecumenism of blood. Their witness speaks more powerfully than any words, because unity is born of the Cross of the Lord.

Rev. Laferty and Prof. Park assisted in leading prayers.