Seven Weeks for Water

And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. (John 13.3-5)

We need to wash our dirty feet!

Insights about water and justice from the foot-washing at the Last Supper

Jesus uses water as an effective and surprising channel to demonstrate the central aspect of his vision for the disciples' ministry. According to John's gospel the Last Supper took place in an undisclosed and secret room, in order for Jesus to be alone with his disciples and loved ones. There were no slaves or helpers to break the bread or to pour the wine - just the gathered few.

Jesus uses this last meal to show his disciples the fundamental principles of his kingdom. The disciples might be tempted to dream about power and authority and their place in the coming kingdom, rather than Jesus' humble acts of service. It was difficult for the disciples to humble themselves and serve each other, which is the central focus of Jesus' message. In practical terms, they did not follow the local custom of washing their feet before having a Passover meal, so Jesus reminded them both of what is right and proper, as well as how to serve.

It is in this setting that Jesus uses water to demonstrate the essence of his teaching. Water is used for cleansing and purifying the dirty feet of the disciples and becomes the symbol of restoration and of new life! The everyday act of foot washing becomes the vehicle for divine revelation.

Jesus envisions a new community which is not defiled by power and greed for authority, but of humility and servitude. But today in our world water has become a source of power and division. Those who unjustly control the sources of water make it into a commodity, owned and sold by powerful monopolies, while those who cannot afford this basic human necessity have to be content with polluted water, endangering themselves. It is sadly the case that in the majority of the world today water has become the cause of death and not of life. Water, "the source of life", has been privatized and exploited to such an extent that only certain human communities can have access to its benefits. The lack of clean water is causing millions to die of diseases every year and human greed has robbed water of its purifying and restoring nature.

The challenge Jesus Christ sets for us by symbolically using water at his last meeting with his disciples says loud and clear that we have to learn to embody the message of love and service for the renewal and restoration of human communities. Jesus invites us to wash ourselves of our greed and desire for power. Water must be restored to being a source of life and basic right of the whole of creation if the world is to carry on. This Lent, we as Jesus Christ's disciples, are once again invited to allow Christ's love and challenge to wash over us, so that we may embody his message to others.

Anderson Jeremiah

Anderson Jeremiah is a PhD candidate in World Christianity at New College, University of Edinburgh and also serves as a Priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, Diocese of Edinburgh.

Together we can make a difference

Lent is a time for reflecting on ourselves and our relationship with God. Some of us give up comforts that we are used to in order to better concentrate on the essentials or as a form of atonement. Whether we fast or use Lent as a special occasion for giving to others, it is an opportunity for us to reflect on our failures, on our own greed and indifference, but also a time for reconciliation and renewing our joy and trust in God's power and mercy as we approach Easter.

• We hope that our Seven Weeks for Water have been able to inspire you in this sense and have been a helpful companion in your Lent meditations. If they have strengthened and renewed your thirst for justice, consider signing up as a supporter of the Ecumenical Water Network.
• Sign up to the free quarterly EWN Newsletter in order to stay informed about future developments and activities.

 Photo: © P. Karl Wallner - www.stift-heiligenkreuz.at

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water;

she is very useful, and humble,

and precious, and pure.

(From Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi)

Sister Water or Blue Gold?

At the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Ricardo Petrella, a professor, author, and water activist from Italy, reported that Nestlé and Coca Cola are buying up large tracts of land in Brazil that contain permanent water springs. Those multinationals are investing vast sums of money in Europe in the bottled water market. Their aim in South America is the same. The International Monetary Fund has put pressure on African governments to accept water privatization as a condition for their receiving subsidies for development. There are rivers in Brazil that are dead through the discharge of industrial chemical waste. That is one way in which water is exploited in favour of production. That is happening even in the ancient ecological sanctuaries in our country such as Bacia do Xingu. The water of the River Fresco, that used to be clear, has now become full of sediment through widespread gold-mining. Fish have been found that are blind through lack of light.

The controversial decision to divert the São Francisco River has the market as its sole aim through concentrating water for irrigation of single-crop farming of sugar cane and agro-business in general. The sparse population of the North East will receive nothing in the form of water supply, which is the most expensive in the world. It is the blue gold. Its prime purpose is not to quench people's thirst, but to make money, particularly in light of global warming and the race for drinking water. According to UN statistics, 884 million human beings do not have access to drinking water, and in 2025 60% of the world population will probably live in regions affected by water shortages.

By contrast, the vision of St Francis of Assisi is very much present today at the grass roots, not only in Brazil but throughout Latin America, in the indigenous, black and peasant communities. It has been the indigenous peoples who have maintained the mystical human relationship with Mother Earth and Sister Water, and have protected what remains to be preserved in nature.

Turning directly to the Gospel, in his conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4: 7-14), Jesus requests her, "Give me something to drink". The insight that the popular communities draw from this is the surprising bond that we have with our own well, and our identification with water, which turns us into fountains of living water. "Drinking from one's own well" as St John of the Cross said. This insight comes to us from times long past. Water is part of the biblical story at key moments in the life of the people of God. But it is also present in the spiritual life of other peoples, who, like the people of the Bible, have made their own essential contribution to the present daily growing awareness of humankind.

Out of that mystical vision comes the strength to fight in defence of water as a vital common good for all living beings, never as a commodity.

Care of water and the struggle to protect it against privatization policies can only be achieved through a fresh global relationship with the created world, with nature, with the environment.

Let us remember the Earth Charter, a genuine achievement of the people, the banner of a new struggle, which should be taken into account in all decision-making by all peoples in defence of the Earth, our home, respecting and caring for life, for the integrity of the environment, for social and economic justice, for democracy and peace.

This is how the precious Earth Charter concludes:

"Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life."

Dom Tomás Balduino

Dom Tomás Balduino is Bishop Emeritus of Goiás. He has dedicated his life to supporting the struggle of the poorest in Brazil for their rights. Today he is adviser to the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Roman Catholic Church that fights for the rights of rural workers and peasants in Brazil.

Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. (Genesis 7:1)

Noah - the first environmentalist with a water problem?

Water is a big issue and a question of justice. For some communities there is no water to irrigate land, or clean water to wash and drink. For other communities there may be plenty of water but it comes in unwelcome destructive episodes whether deluge from the sky, floods from rivers or the rising tide of the sea. The issues are painfully familiar to an increasing number of people, but the grim reality is that due to global warming and the climate change that results, things are getting worse. The injustice of flood and drought affect the world's poor disproportionately. Without significant change in human behaviour, science tells us that the future is potentially catastrophic. Water confronts all of us with questions about sustainability and our ecological debt.

So what does science say is likely to happen if global warming continues unabated? The list includes:

• rising sea-levels due to melting of land-based ice and expansion of oceans as they warm - bad news for low-lying islands and the millions who live in delta regions
• change in rainfall patterns -some semi-arid areas becoming hotter and drier making food harder to grow, and some temperate areas becoming wetter - again making food harder to grow, and bringing an increased risk of flooding
• storms - more frequent and more severe

Have we been here before? Not exactly, this is the first time that humans have caused global warming, but there are some biblical stories that provide pointers and a vision of hope.

Thumb back to near the beginning of the Bible and we find the story of Noah and the flood. Humanity has become wicked, turned from God's way, though the precise nature of their sin is not spelled out. Focussing on Noah - we see an individual who in God's eyes has favour, was righteous and blameless in his generation, who is described as walking with God. With a flood coming God told Noah to build an ark, round up two of every animal and lead them into the ark and when the rains come, to baton down the hatches.  Noah did as God asked.

Noah not only walked with God in troubled times, but obediently responded to God whatever the cost in resources, to his family or in terms of neighbourly derision. In rounding up the animals into the ark ahead of danger Noah acted as a good conservationist. And following the abatement of the flood Noah's first act was to show to his continued reliance on God through worship.

And God responded to Noah, and indeed to his family, his children and children's children and all living creatures with the rainbow promise.

Noah was the first Biblical environmentalist, he read the signs of the times, was obedient to God, re-oriented his life and acted to ensure the survival of life. His story challenges our generation. Are we willing to read the signs of the times? Are we willing to be obedient to God's leading regardless of personal cost in time, money or derision? Do we feel a calling to help shape our lives, community and economy into one that ensures a safe ark-like passage for ourselves, our children and our children's children and all living creatures?

Mindful of climate change and the real threat to water and life, what can you or your community do to follow in Noah's footsteps and walk with God?

After the flood God gave Noah the rainbow as a sign of commitment to the whole world. Reflecting on God's multi-coloured rainbow promise never to bring a flood again, what rainbow promise does your faith community want to make to God and to your children and children's children and all living creatures?

David Pickering

David Pickering is the minister at St Andrew's Roundhay United Reformed Church in Leeds and has been the Operation Noah board chair since 2005. In the 1990s he was the URC's environmental advisor and from 1999-2004 developed and managed Eco-congregation.

Together we can make a difference:

• In December 2009 the UN are organizing an international climate change conference in Copenhagen for political leaders to agree on a global climate change plan. Operation Noah in the UK is campaigning for the UK Government to lobby for significant world-wide reductions in emissions from fossil fuel power stations. Read more about our ‘cap the power - cut the carbon' at www.operationnoah.org/5
• What is your promise? Learn about what you can do to slow climate change: "What you can do. Simple changes in our everyday lives can help slow climate change." (David Suzuki Foundation)

Picture: Gaspirtz

"So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." (John 4: 5-10).

No one owns water, it is God's gift

Water is where the meeting in this story takes place. It has great attraction as a place of life and renewal in this dry land. The well where the water can be found is said to be Jacob's - perhaps a reference to the Old Testament patriarch, perhaps a reference to the owner of the plot who has commanded "powerless" slaves and servants to dig the well.

We meet a tired and thirsty Jesus attracted to the well for renewal of his life. He has sent his disciples to the city with money to buy food. He has no means of accessing the well's water but he knows he does not need money and that someone will be there to freely share the water with him.

The Samaritan woman comes as part of her usual routine: carrying out a typical gender role, drawing water to sustain her family. While she is part of the marginalized non-Jewish people (Samaritan) she is at the centre of contradiction: being discriminated against while also being the access point to drinking water. 

Jesus' request "Give me a drink" (7) calls for this woman to interrupt her household chore so as to offer this controversial Jewish man hospitality. Unlike the betrothal narratives of Isaac (Gen 24:10-61), Jacob (Gen 29:1-20) and Moses (Exod 2:15b-21), Jesus has not come to the well to look for a woman to be his bride. He is looking for a witness who will recognize him as the source of living and free flowing water, and bring the despised thirsty people to him. Following this life-changing conversation, the woman becomes an access point for both types of water.

We can learn from this story that water is life: important for renewal; needed by everyone, regardless of race, sex, age, ability or any other quality; a gift of God that should not be privatized and confined to the powerful so as to deprive the less powerful; and that like the Samaritan woman, each one of us should make sure that we work towards making physical and spiritual water accessible to all.

From Jesus we can learn that we should always dare to demand access to water and that we should engage in dialogue with both those who have accepted their positions of privilege as normal as well as those who accept their deprivation as normal. The Samaritan woman had an encounter with God, she realized that the real owner of water for life is God not Jacob. This life-changing encounter empowered her to go and tell her people: the God who created free flowing water is also their God. Just as God's Spirit cannot be confined to a few people only, water should not be confined to one particular well.

Let the water flow like God's Spirit, to give life and renewal to all as God wills it!

Fulata Moyo

Fulata Mbano-Moyo, a Malawian Reformed systematic theologian, is WCC's programme executive for women in church and society. Her PhD work is in the area of gender and sexual ethics.

Together we can make a difference…

While considerable progress has been made in extending access to water in recent years, the latest data show that 884 million people around the world still do not have access to safe water. Women bear the brunt of the burden where water has to be collected from far away water sources and when their children get sick or die from diseases caused by dirty water.

• Help ease this burden by making a "just gift": give a friend or relative a jerry can, a well, or why not a toilet - given in their name to somebody who needs it for a better life.
• Find out whether there are organizations in your own country that offer just gifts. Some participants of the Ecumenical Water Network like Church World Service (USA) and Christian World Service (New Zealand) offer the possibility of giving such a gift instead of an ordinary present, and you can find others by searching the internet for "Water and sanitation as a gift".

Photo: Walwyn

You trample on the poor
and force them to give you grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.

Amos 5:11

Water, symbol of our relationship with God

Water is symbolic of our relationship with God, carrying the image of renewal, promise and hope. It is through water that we are baptized into the community of the church. Furthermore, water is essential to all life on Earth, and it links human life to the rest of God's creation. Creation begins with God calling life out of the water (Genesis 1:2). The human body itself is made up mainly of water. We can go for weeks without food, but only a few days without water. It is through water that all of creation is gifted with life, and life in all of its various forms is not possible without water.

But, if water is symbolic of our relationship with God, what does it say about us?  Throughout the world 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water (WHO/UNICEF). The United Nations have warned that by the year 2025, if present trends continue, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world population could be subject to water stress. Even in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, 218 million people live within 10 miles of a polluted lake.

Water is first and foremost a gift from God - provided so that we and all of creation may have life. As people of faith we understand our responsibilities as to protect the sacred gifts given by God, and to heal a world torn by brokenness and human strife. Too often we in the United States don't see our actions in connection with the wider world. We build stone mansions and have lush vineyards while often turning a blind eye to the trampling of the poor that goes on to provide these things.

The water crisis is one example of this. Developed countries, including the United States, use the vast majority of the water in the world, especially when it comes to waste disposal and industry (unesco.org).  While we are using water for business those living in deepest poverty are going entirely without - and often our businesses are taking their water. In India Coca-Cola has drawn criticism for mining water which they have the rights to and parching the land where more than 2000 people live (stwr.org). In Africa more than 58 percent of the population lacks access to water resources.

We are called to live in right relationship with the rest of the world and with creation, and our lives should reflect that. We need to be careful that our vineyards aren't watered with the water of those living in poverty around the world. The wine of the body of Christ is meant to be enjoyed by all.

Jordan Blevins

Jordan Blevins is the Assistant Director of the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches, USA, where he coordinates their work on public lands, water, biodiversity, and environmental justice. He also serves on the Young Adult Task Force of the US Conference of the World Council of Churches.

Together We Can Make A Difference:

• Plan a world water day worship service. This year it is on a Sunday - and the perfect opportunity to involve your faith community in work on the global water crisis. Click here for a resource from the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches, USA, or here for resources compiled by the Ecumenical Water Network.
• Get involved in water projects around the world. Check out the work of Church World Service or other EWN participants - maybe get your faith community to sponsor a specific project.
• Get in touch with your local government and companies - and advocate for fair water practices. Click here for stories of hope from around the world.

Photo: Abraxas3d

While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. (Joshua 3:15-17)

Dealing with our own sewage: A Jordan River perspective

The cholera crisis in Zimbabwe is a chilling illustration of the crucial link between water, sanitation, health and political responsibility.  By the middle of February 2009, the WHO noted that over 70,000 people were infected and 3,524 had died. 

We all live downstream

Cholera is a clear indication that economics and ecology are deeply integrated, and that water is at the intersection of the two.  The economic system, via industry, agriculture, and the human impact upon climate change is placing huge stress on our water resources, and in turn these diminishing resources impact severely upon the quality of life of the poor and marginalized.

This should not surprise us.  The Greek word for home or household is oikos.  Our words economy and ecology both come from that word.  Economy is oikos-nomos, rules of the household.  Ecology is oikos-logos, wisdom of the household.  We inhabit one household, the globe.  From a water perspective "we all live downstream".

This link between economy and ecology is usually missing from our theological models.  Liberation theologies focus on the Exodus tradition, and are concerned with economics and poverty.  Creation theologies focus on the Genesis tradition, and are concerned with ecology and the environment.  Isolated from the each other, these theologies miss the fact that "we all live downstream".  We need to find a theological vision that integrates them.

A Jordan River perspective

Here I think a Jordan River perspective is helpful.  It points to the People of Israel as they are about to enter the Land of Promise.  They are people of the Exodus, liberated from slavery.  But now they are not just free.  They are about to take on the responsibility of creating a society that honours both humanity and the earth.  This is, after all, a land that will flow with milk and honey for generations to come.

A Jordan River perspective also reminds us of the strong links that the bible has to water.  The Jordan river flows from life (Sea of Gailiee) to death, (Dead Sea).  It reminds us that human choices are taken between these two options, connecting economics and ecology, the Passover Festival (liberation) with the Festival of Weeks (creation).

Such a perspective cannot be a legitimation of the modern state of Israel or other imperial projects, for it is rooted in the Deuteronomic code of justice for the widow, the alien and the oppressed.

Indeed the Jordan River perspective holds together economics and ecology, recognizing that "we all live downstream".  It is a reminder that freedom is worth nothing for the poor if we cannot deal with sewage.

Steve de Gruchy

Steve de Gruchy is Professor of Theology and Development, and Head of the School of Religion and Theology, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.  He has been involved for many years in the ecumenical movement in South African and globally with a particular focus on issues of social justice and community engagement.

Together we can make a difference…

"Don't forget to flush" - that is what those of us who have had the luxury of growing up with a toilet in the house have been taught. But our "flush-and-forget" mentality is causing many troubles, not just by causing blockages but also by polluting increasingly scarce water resources.

• Cooking oil, food scraps, cotton buds …? Make a list of the things you have disposed of in your sink or in your toilet in the past week!
• Read our "Don't flush and forget!" recommendations and think about whether there is something you could do better in the future.
• Why not make a bird cake from your left-over cooking oil? The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has instructions for children and adults. 

Read more

• about water projects of Action for Churches Together (ACT) in Zimbabwe at http://act-intl.org/news.php?uid=675
• in Steve de Gruchy's complete article "Dealing with our own sewage: Spirituality and Ethics in the Sustainability Agenda"

Foto: Ajay Tallam

Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6.8b)

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. (Psalm 42.1)

Drip, drip, drip …

Like the ticking of a clock marking out time, water drips noisily. Maybe it drips off the edge of a stone or roof in times of rain and plenty, or perhaps from a badly turned off tap in societies where earth's most precious and vital resource is unconsciously wasted.

The sound of dripping water is greeted with joy after a time of drought. The sound of those drops hitting the ground brings the promise of transformation, of seeds germinating, of crops bearing fruit, of hope for the future, of refreshment. That dripping is also the sound of justice.

More than two thousand years ago, the prophet Micah was calling humanity to a threefold spirituality of resistance and persistence, "Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God". It is to such a spirituality of persistence, to a spirituality of long term sustainability that Christians are called as Lent once more begins.

Centuries ago the Roman poet Ovid said that dripping water wears away stone not by force but by persistence. In a society of quick fixes and instant solutions the Lenten virtues of discipline and going without are not always easy to sell. Micah's threefold spirituality calls us to be as water dripping on stone, continuing to highlight issues of water and justice in our own communities and across the world.

Loren Kerkof, a Franciscan father in the USA, also encourages the development of a threefold spirituality as a response to the ecological reality of our planet, one which stems from our need to deepen our relationship with God; a sense of moral responsibility and the call to promote God's kingdom of justice.

"Eco-spirituality realizes that the earth is a reflection of the divine; it sees the universe as a sacrament of God, an incarnation of God. Contemplating the beauty and presence of God in all things can lead us to metanoia, a conversion that moves us to respond to the crisis faced by our planet, our home, God's creation."

Like the deer longing for pure running water in Psalm 42, there is deep longing in our world for things to be different, for clean water, for deeper relationship with God, for a more related and just way of living between people.

The water crisis and the lack of justice in access to water is part of the crisis facing the planet. Kerkof says that the question facing us today is "How, then, shall we live"?

Seen this way Lent is more about taking time to ask questions, looking at God's beautiful creation, becoming aware of how the way each of us lives today is linked to whole of life on this precious and fragile planet, and asking ourselves what does it mean today to follow Jesus? It is about contemplating beautiful lakes, free running streams or simply a glass of clean drinking water and longing for justice. It's also about committing to being part of the long term work for water justice across the planet.

As we walk humbly with God through Lent we are also looking forwards to the promise of the transformed world values offered by Christ's resurrection at Easter. That transformation has to begin with ourselves.

Achieving water justice for the more than one billion people on our planet who do not have access to clean drinking water will not come about over night. It will be a long process linking advocacy, campaigning and direct action. Sometimes it will seem as if we are having no impact. It demands not only our intellectual and political commitment, it also needs a spirituality of persistence which sustains us as we follow Jesus and try to be water wearing away at the mountains of injustice.

The promise is that Christ the source of living waters will sustain us as we go forwards and water the seeds of new life.

Jane Stranz

Jane Stranz is a minister in the United Reformed Church in Great Britain and the Reformed Church of France. She lives in France and works in Geneva at the World Council of Churches as coordinator of the language service.

Together we can make a difference …

Prepare for World Water Day (22^nd March)

* Find out if there are local activities for World Water Day near you.

* Look at our tool kit for ideas of how you and your church can get involved in activities for justice on World Water Day.

A spiritual exercise

Take some time to listen to water, dripping, pouring, streaming.

Think of the life-giving potential of just one drop of water to irrigate and bring new life to a barren land.

As you listen to, or imagine, the sounds of water, pray:

• for more justice in fair access for all people to this most vital resource;
• for patience to sustain advocacy and campaigning on water justice.

More information

Read Loren Kerkof's article here: "Eco-spirituality and Lenten Practice" (in English)

Photo: Andrei Niemimäki

As the season of Lent, during which Christians around the world prepare themselves for the feast of Easter, draws near, the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) invites Christian groups and congregations to mark the occasion with reflection and action on water justice.

During the Seven Weeks for Water, a theologian or church activist from Africa, Europe, North or South America will share a short biblical meditation each week along with some campaigning links and ideas.

The first set of materials will be available on the EWN website as of 25 February - Ash Wednesday according to Western Christian tradition.EWN also provides an RSS stream for the seven weeks, which allows groups and congregations to give visibility to their participation in the campaign on their own websites. The Seven Weeks for Water were first celebrated during Lent 2008. This year, the resources will be available in four languages - English, Spanish, German and French - for the first time.

Another opportunity to highlight the importance of water comes up on World Water Day, 22 March. EWN has already put together a collection of resources and links that can help congregations address the issue inspired by prayer, bible texts on justice and on water, as well as the experiences of church agencies with the challenge posed by inequal access to freshwater and sanitation.

Seven Weeks for Water: www.oikoumene.org/7-weeks-for-water

Ideas for World Water Day 2009: www.oikoumene.org/?id=6129