News
The German Protestant aid agency Brot für die Welt has handed a steering wheel, symbol of its water campaign, over to the World Council of Churches (WCC), thus symbolically handing responsibility for this concern over to the WCC and a newly formed Ecumenical Water Network (EWN).
The German campaign, launched in March 2003, focused on the human right to water. At the campaign's closing ceremony in Hamburg in October, Brot für die Welt grants committee president Bishop Bärbel von Wartenberg-Potter handed the campaign's steering wheel over to WCC central committee member Prof. Fernando Enns who, in turn, gave it to WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia on 12 December.
A statement on "Water for Life" issued by the WCC's 9th Assembly in February 2006 committed the Council to "fosterco-operation of churches and ecumenical partners on water concerns through participation in the Ecumenical Water Network".
Immediately after the Assembly, EWN attended an alternative event in Mexico City that challenged the March 2006 World Water Forum, which is strongly influenced by private (and transnational) companies.
The new network has a newsletter, and will participate actively at the 7th World Social Forum (WSF) scheduled for January 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of the global ecumenical coalition there.
