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Seven Weeks for Water 2024, week 3: "Celebrating Jesus’ life in water through the lens of justice”

The third reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2024 series of the WCC Ecumenical Water Network is written by Very Rev. Dr Augustinos Bairactaris. In this reflection, he underscores that the water justice issue is a theological task for all, and that the health of the water is vital to human civilization, and for the stability of the worlds climate and biodiversity. He urges all Christians to pray, fast, and act together for a sustainable environment and planet, especially during Lent.

ACT Alliance general secretary: “equity is not negotiable”

As the 78th session of the UN General Assembly and the first-ever Climate Action Summit were held in New York City in September, ACT Alliance general secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria reflected on the importance of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the ecumenical movement in creating a more sustainable and equitable world.

Witnessing the mighty river flow

What an incredible time to be living in! While skepticism and eco-anxiety tend to be the results we most see nowadays as we grow aware of the dimensions of the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity and the socio-environmental crisis, for me I can't help but feel the daring and stubborn Christian hope as I grow increasingly committed to ecumenical care for creation. 

Season of Creation 2023

01 September - 04 October 2023

From September 1 to October 4, Christians around the world are praying and caring for creation. It’s the “Season of Creation”. The beginning and the end date of Season of Creation are linked with the concern for creation in the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity, respectively.

"Faith Community is a Blue Community” unfolds alongside UN Water Conference

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network and its partner organizations hosted a hybrid side event, “Faith Community is a ‘Blue Community,” on 22 March in conjunction with the UN Water Conference in New York City.Prof. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, UN Special Rapporteur, human right to water, opened the event with a video message on how this is the first time in almost 50 years that the United Nations has convened a global event to reflect on the global water crisis—a crisis that finds 2 billion people without access to clean water, and 4 billion without access to adequate sanitation.

God’s Creation is celebrated in a gathering of waters

Recalling believers’ mandate to act as stewards and beneficiaries of God’s creation, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly gathered in morning prayer on the first day of September, the Orthodox Day of Prayer for Creation and the start of an ecumenically observed Season of Creation. At the heart of the liturgical action was a combining of vessels of water from each inhabited region of the earth, a “gathering of the waters” reflecting the earliest act of creation in Genesis 1:9.

Care for Creation: Decades of ecumenical advocacy

September 1 marks the beginning of the Season of Creation, five weeks in the liturgical calendar recognized by the fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and, since 2015, by the Catholic Church. It is an especially religious demonstration of concern for the planet and for threats to the survival of Earth as we know it.

Seven Weeks for Water 2022, week 7: “Pilgrimage of water justice in Europe,” by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri

The seventh and final reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2022 of the WCCs Ecumenical Water Network is written by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri*. In the following reflection she, being the staff focal point of WCCs Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, makes a compelling analysis of how the WCC pilgrimage and the pilgrimage of water justice inter-relate, complement, and strengthen each other, with a particular reference to Europe.

Seven Weeks for Water 2022, week 4: “Water for peace: an interfaith perspective”, by Susanne Öhlmann

The fourth reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2022 of the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network is written by Susanne Öhlmann.* She says water and peace are similar to each other. We do not miss them until they are absent. On one hand, Europe, a water rich continent, has started to feel the pinch of water shortages in recent times, and on the other, peace and security of the region has started to destabilize in the wake of war in Ukraine. Drawing inspiration from the prophet Amos, she prays for peace and justice to prevail.