First Church Unity Octave

First Church Unity Octave

For a period of eight days (January 18th through 25th, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul) was set apart for the express purpose of seeking that unity which was prayed for by Christ Himself. This was the inspiration given by God to Father Paul Wattson. Father Paul, along with Mother Lurana White, founded, within the Episcopal Church, the Franciscan Society of the Atonement in Graymoor, New York. Father Paul, who entered the Roman Catholic Church along with Mother Lurana in 1909, considered the Octave, which was approved by Pope Pius X, to be the greatest project to come from Graymoor. During his lifetime, the Octave was overshadowed by the less-specific Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, however, he received great joy that those separated from the Catholic Church felt called to observe the January period as a time of prayer for unity.

The greatest undertaking of the Friars and Sisters of the Atonement was to inaugurate the Church Unity Octave. (Fr. Paul writing in The Candle Jan.–Mar. 1939 p.27)