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Amid a warning that a famine is “at the doorstep” in eastern Africa, church leaders are re-stressing urgent action to save millions of people caught in a drought described as the worst in 40 years.

The importance of water for Christians around the world cannot be overemphasized.  From Genesis 1:1, where we read that “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” to its sacramental role in baptism and the Eucharist, water is integral to the faith.

When the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, churches had already been responding to humanitarian need in the country for eight years, since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.  The work being undertaken by churches in meeting the needs of those displaced by the war is not new, but the scale is staggering as 14 million people have been displaced in the six months since the invasion began.

The groaning of a Creation awaiting renewal provided context for ecumenical common prayer at the 11^th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Karlsruhe, Germany on the morning of Monday 5 September. The theme for morning prayers was “Christ’s love means compassion for life”.

Rappelant aux fidèles leur devoir d’agir comme des intendants et intendantes et des bénéficiaires de la création de Dieu, l’Assemblée du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE) s’est réunie pour prier le 1ᵉʳ septembre, jour de prière pour la création chez les orthodoxes et début du Temps pour la création observé dans le monde œcuménique. Le point d’orgue de l’action liturgique a été le mélange d’eaux provenant de chaque région habitée de la Terre, dans «un rassemblement des eaux» reflétant l’acte de création décrit dans Genèse 1,9.

“If you’re for climate justice, say ‘AMEN!’” was the chant as young people led a protest marching through the Brunnen exhibition zone at the 11^th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany on September 2, 2022.

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.

Um Ismail, in her 50s, loves her children fiercely and wholly, as mothers do all over the globe. But for Um Ismail, who lives in the Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin community, finding enough water for her ten children plunges the family daily into near catastrophe.