Tuesday, January 18, 2022, begins the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an observance with Franciscan roots. The 2022 theme for the Week is inspired by Matthew 2:2—“We saw the star in the east, and we came to worship him.”

Living St Francis’s vision of corporate poverty

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was the initiative of Fr. Paul Wattson (1863–1940) and Mother Lurana White (1870–1935), founders of the Society of the Atonement. In 1895, Lurana, then a young religious in the Episcopal Church, was looking for an Anglican congregation that lived St. Francis's vision of corporate poverty, and she turned to Fr. Paul for assistance. Finding none, the duo founded the Society of the Atonement in 1898 at Graymoor, in Garrison, NY.

Mother Lurana White (1870–1935), cofounder of the Society of the Atonement

Founding the Society of Atonement

For the name of the new congregation, Fr. Paul was