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"Diakonia of Hope in a fragile world", keynote address by Rev Dr Kenneth Mtata at the Regional Conference for the DRAE (Africa and Europe) region in Neuendettelsau, Germany, 06 - 10 September 2023

"The Living Planet: Seeking a Just and Sustainable Global Community", Statement by the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany

This joint report emphasises the work of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Ecumenical Indigenous Peoples Network Reference Group and the Working Group on Climate Change. It affirms that Indigenous perspectives are crucial not only for addressing the burgeoning climate emergency but also for navigating the way forward to a hopeful post-COVID, post-growth and post-fossil fuel future and calls on the WCC to address this at the 11th WCC Assembly and relevant preassemblies.

Address by Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches at the Forum of collaboration between international organisations on humantarian aid, 10 June 2022.

Ecumenical Water Network-Brazil (REDA-Brazil) Stands in Solidarity with #FAME 2022.

The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) in the USA is dedicated to chemical safety and supporting healthy, toxic-free communities where people can safely live, work, play, pray and go to school. The alliance is rooted in the history of the environmental and economic justice movement. WCC-EWN talked to Michele Roberts of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA) about challenges to safe drinking water in the USA, how these are closely related to systemic racism, and possible solutions to achieve water justice for all.

Year after year, people of faith, theologians, philosophers, environmentalists, and people from church-related grassroots organizations, as part of the WCC-EWN’s Seven Weeks for Water Lenten campaign, try to capture what is happening in their region regarding water. The editors talked to different members of the WCC-EWN about what the Seven Weeks for Water mean to them and why spiritual reflection is important as we strive for the responsible management and equitable distribution of water for all.

The second reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water is by Rev. Gloria Ulloa, an ordained priest of the  Presbyterian Church of Colombia and the president of the World Council of Churches, Latin American region.  In the following reflection she relates her own experiences of growing up in her village by the riverside.  She laments the current situation of water in the Latin American region and challenges the churches to address this water crisis to usher fullness of life among us.

The first Reflection of the “Seven Weeks for Water” of World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Water Network is by Ivo Poletto, a philosopher, theologian and social scientist from Brazil. He is also national advisor to the Climate Change and Social Justice Forum in Brazil. In the following reflection, he analyses the water cycle of Brazil, the “flying rivers” of the Amazon but also laments on fast depleting forests which are breaking the water cycle and making clouds as well as aquifers disappear.  He insists that water is one of the common goods that require special care, as there is no life without water.

The final reflection of the Lenten Campaign: Seven Weeks for Water 2017 of the Word Council of Churches’ (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) is by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri.  Dr Phiri is the deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and responsible for WCC’s work on Public Witness and Diakonia. A Malawian by nationality, Apawo Phiri was a professor of African theology, dean and head of the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, and director of the Centre for Constructive Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  In this reflection she explains the concept of a ‘blue community’ and points out why the bottled water industry is an impediment to the human right to water. She then takes us through the journey of the WCC into becoming a blue community through one of its ecumenical initiatives, the EWN.

The fifth biblical reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2015 is by Veronica Flachier, a journalist and theologian from Ecuador. She is a representative of the CLAI (Latin American Council of Churches) to the International Reference Group of the Ecumenical Water Network of the WCC and currently one of the co-chairs. In this reflection, she highlights that the water crisis we currently experience has been determined by the ambition of certain powerful corporations that formulate the rules in a world that is regulated by the logic of the consumer driven market, where not only water is a commodity, but so is the entirety of nature and even the human beings. Only by re-ordering the quality of the relationships in the frame of ethics and justice, can we dream of re-ordering our Pachamama – the mother earth.

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. 

The psalmist once declared, “The Earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1). From generation to generation, we have a lifespan to enjoy and steward God’s Earth. However, in recent decades, industries that unsustainably extract from God’s Earth have been spinning out of control. Their actions challenge God's sovereignty over the gifts that were created for sharing by  all Creation and for all generations. Extractive and other industries have been privatizing the natural gifts of God’s Earth and have excluded local communities from sharing in these gifts.

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.