An extensive programme of events is being held all across Austria to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The World Council of Churches in Austria (ÖRKÖ) has organized a series of events in all the dioceses. On 23 January in Linz, the Coptic Bishop of Austria, Anba Gabriel, will preside over an ecumenical celebration at the Coptic Orthodox Church in Wiener Straße. In St. Pölten, the Catholic Academy invites the faithful of all denominations to the Leopold Chapel, a religious symbol of Lower Austria, in the afternoon of Sunday, 21 January. In Salzburg, the Churches will be holding an ecumenical service on Wednesday, 24 January, at the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter; but already tomorrow, Friday 19 January, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church invite the faithful to pray the Byzantine Vespers at the Church of Saint Mark. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, for his part, will invite the main representatives of the Christian Churches in Austria to the traditional ecumenical reception on 31 January: at 6pm, he will preside at a prayer service at the church of the ancient Abbey of Saint Mary of the Scots, before opening the doors of the Archiepiscopal Palace in Vienna for the traditional reception. The national final celebration will be held at the Serbian Orthodox Church in Vienna at 6pm on 25 January. Last but not least, the Ecumenical Forum invites the faithful to a moment of prayer and fraternity in Styria on 26-27 January under the title “Overcoming the gaps!”.