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Christian Unity

One hundred years ago the Rev. Paul Watson and Sister Laura White, co-founders of the American Anglican community called the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, organized the first Christian Unity Octave, a period of prayer for the reunion of the church that extended from Jan. 18 to Jan. 25, the eight days between the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter and that of the Conversion of Saint Paul. As Episcopalians, Father Paul and Sister Laura originally envisioned the observance as a time of prayer for the reunion of their fellow Anglicans with Rome. In 1909, the This article appears in February 4 2008.