Skip to content

Pastor Rick Warren: Christian unity is ‘still the unanswered prayer of Jesus’

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren said the upcoming 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s resurrection highlights Jesus’ “unanswered prayer” for Christian unity, which he believes is key to spreading the Gospel.

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren this week said the upcoming 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus highlights the Lord’s “unanswered prayer” of unity in the Christian world, a unity which he said will help bring the message of salvation to the world.

Warren, the founder of the Baptist Saddleback Church in California, spoke to EWTN Vatican Bureau Chief Andreas Thonhauser in Rome on attending a gathering of Global 2033, a Catholic evangelization initiative working to spread the Gospel message ahead of the two-thousand-year observance of Christ rising from the dead.

Asked by Thonhauser why he was speaking at a Catholic event, the Protestant minister claimed that “no single denomination can complete the Great Commission on their own.”

“There are 2.5 billion people in the world who claim to believe in Jesus Christ,” Warren said. Of those, “1.3 billion are Catholic. About half of the Christian Church is Catholic.”

Dismissing potential criticisms that his intent is to convert Catholics to Protestantism, Warren pointed to Christ’s prayers in John 17, in which he prayed to God: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

That plea “is still the unanswered prayer of Jesus,” Warren said.

“We’re never going to have cultural unity. We’re never going to have structural unity,” Warren pointed out.

“We’re never going to have unity in doctrine,” he further claimed. “But we can all agree on one thing. Every Christian understands we’re called to go [and evangelize].”

On praying alongside Catholics in Rome, Warren said: “I pray with anybody who believes Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. These are brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Looking forward to 2033, Warren said: “What the world needs now is hope.”

The Baptist pastor further shared that EWTN has been a “great ministry in [his] life.” He pointed to the 2013 death of his son, who took his own life that year after struggling with mental illness.

“It was the worst day of my life,” Warren said. “One of the things that helped me through was on EWTN, they were praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. And the Chaplet of Divine Mercy ministered to me and to my wife.”

“It was a healing balm in my heart,” he said.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE 

This article was originally published by CNA.

Receive the most important news from EWTN Vatican via WhatsApp. It has become increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channel today

Share

Would you like to receive the latest updates on the Pope and the Vatican

Receive articles and updates from our EWTN Newsletter.

More news related to this article

Pope Francis at Gregorian University warns of ‘Coca-Cola spirituality’

Pope Francis warned against “Coca-Cola spirituality” on Tuesday at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, shortly after the rector praised exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez as a model of true Christian courage.

The dark and oppressive period of Pope Benedict XVI as a soldier during World War II

Did you know that Pope Benedict was a soldier during WWII?  Learn more here!

Pope Francis: The devil is threatening the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church with division

In a meeting with Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil and members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at the Vatican on Monday, Pope Francis urged unity and obedience amid a long-simmering liturgical conflict that continues to rock the Eastern church.

The Popes and the Power and Significance of the Saint Benedict Medal

The medal of St. Benedict is also known as the "devil-chasing medal" for it's power against evil. Here's what some of the symbols and phrases inscribed on the front and back of it mean

St. Thomas Aquinas’ relics carried in procession for 750th anniversary of his death

On the eve of the 750th anniversary of St. Thomas Aquinas’ death, a skull revered as a relic of St. Thomas Aquinas was carried in a solemn procession through the cobblestone streets of the southern Italian town of Priverno.

EXPLAINER: What happens during the Vatican’s 9 days of mourning for the pope?

With the death of Pope Francis on Monday, the Catholic Church has entered a mourning period, which will include nine days of Masses offered for the repose of his soul known as the “Novendiales.” 

LIVE
FROM THE VATICAN

Be present live on EWTNit