News
World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Isabel Apawo Phiri offered the annual Steve de Gruchy Memorial Lecture on 24 April in Cape Town, South Africa.
South African theologian Rev. Dr Steve de Gruchy authored more than 20 books and research papers about the social history of Christianity in South Africa; theology and development; and religion and public health. He has extensively written on water and sanitation. He died at the age of 48 in 2010 in a tragic accident in a river. De Gruchy was an active member of the WCC's Ecumenical Water Network.
Phiri was a colleague of de Gruchy when he was head of the School of Religion, and Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal.
“He was a visionary leader who always pushed the boundaries in order to assist the school to read the signs of our times from a multi-disciplinary approach,”said Phiri. “Steve de Gruchy also inspired many post-graduate students from all over Africa who came to the University of KwaZulu Natal, specifically because they wanted to be supervised by him.”
Phiri’s lecture, entitled “God of Life Lead us to Water Justice,”was inspired first by the theme of the WCC 10th Assembly, “God of Life Lead us to Justice and Peace.”Second, inspiration came from de Gruchy’s writings about justice, economy and ecology in his analysis of water and sanitation. Third, Phiri drew inspiration from the current water crisis in Cape Town, where it is predicted that by mid-July 2018 the city’s tap would run dry.
“In the case of the issue of water justice in Cape Town, the ecumenical movement is invited on a pilgrimage of water justice by focusing on the three dimensions of the pilgrimage: celebrating the gifts, visiting the wounds and working towards transformative actions,”Phiri said.
