A rare and moving scene unfolded for believers of various confessions in Timișoara, who attended a joint prayer at the Lutheran evangelical church in the city center, as reported by Timiș Online.

Present at the gathering, Baptist pastor Samy Tuțac remarked, "A picture is worth a thousand words: an Orthodox metropolitan embraces a Jewish rabbi in a Lutheran evangelical church".

He also provided context: Zvika Kfir, the rabbi of the Jewish Community in Timișoara, spoke about love for God and fellow human beings, expressing that"love is so complex that I cannot understand it, and I don't know how to explain it".

And Metropolitan Ioan Selejan, the Metropolitan of Banat, responded, "I don't know either, but I can show you", and then embraced him.

The Prayer for Unity, celebrated since 1908

The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity took place on January 26 at the Lutheran evangelical church in downtown Timișoara.

This is an ecumenical celebration coordinated by the leaders of the churches in Timișoara, traditionally observed from January 18th to 25th each year.

This time frame was proposed by Paul Wattson in 1908, covering the liturgical period between the feast of St. Peter and that of St. Paul, following the Roman rite.