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World Council of Churches - Feature

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>For immediate release - 12/08/2008 10:37:22

WATER FOR ALL: YOUNG CHRISTIANS STUDY DEFENCE OF THIS PRECIOUS

>RESOURCE

>By Annegret Kapp (*)
>Free photos available, see below

"Water has no colour, no race, no nationality, it is the same
all over the world," according to Rania Flavie Tourma, an
Orthodox Christian from Syria. So to her, it was perfectly
natural that people from around the world gathered near Geneva,
Switzerland at the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) Summer School
on Water to unite in defence of this natural resource.

While water is vital for all, Tourma and others attending this
unique summer school know all too well that access to water, and
the awareness of how precious it is, could hardly be more
unequally distributed. As Christians, the 22 young men and women
who met at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical
Institute in Bossey for eight days of intense learning about
water issues feel compelled to speak out against this injustice.

Their professional backgrounds were as diverse as the 18
countries and six different continents they came from. Their
presentations on water issues in their countries really
complemented the lectures by international experts on water
management, advocacy and development. 

Summer school student Roderick Chukwuemeka Oji from Nigeria
started his presentation holding up a small plastic pouch of
water which is sold on the streets of Lagos for five Naira, less
then five cents US. "In my country, we call this pure water," he
said.

However, the content of these packets is far from safe to drink,
the law student and Presbyterian youth leader explained. All too
often the water that is sealed in this transparent plastic comes
from an uncontrolled source and bears a made-up license number.
No wonder the elites prefer bottled water from abroad, he said.

Oji was not the only one who reported on poor drinking water
supplies in a country blessed with rivers and abundant rain.
Participants from Rwanda, Honduras, Armenia and Lesotho all spoke
of the unequal distribution of a resource that is not so scarce.

Another student, Packiaraj Asirvatham from India, told of an
apparently successful campaign four years ago in which several
thousand local people rallied against the construction of a soft
drinks factory in Gangaikondan, India, which was going to take
unsustainable amounts of water out of a river which the whole
district relied on. 

While the campaign was successful at the time, the 27-year-old
pastor of the Church of South India warned that vigilance
remained necessary even after what seemed like a victory. Just a
few days before leaving to attend the ecumenical summer school he
had returned to Gangaikondan only to find that the bottling unit
was now up and running.

>Lead role for youth

Youth have an important role to play in the preservation of
water according to Oji. The more established leaders, even within
the church, often do not address these issues. 

Lilit Babajanyan from Armenia added that if she wanted to do
something to counterbalance the political influence of rich
landowners in the fight over Armenia's Lake Sevan the best
starting point for her was her personal network of friends - a
group of young Christians.

When the concern for creation brings together Christians aged 20
to 30, they will of course not limit themselves to academic
exercises. In between sessions they shared about their homes and
cultures and taught each other songs from their home churches. 

The drawings and hip-hop lyrics posted on the Ecumenical Water
Network's summer blog ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6116 )also
bear witness to their creative talents.

Creativity was one of the criteria for choosing candidates for
the summer school because of its value in bringing to life
powerful biblical stories about Christ's promise of justice and
the "living water" of faith.

"How can Americans hold water as sacred when it is wasted away
every day?" Kelly Forbush, a theology student from the United
Church of Christ in the USA, wrote in a blog entry about her
reflections from one of the morning Bible studies. "Water comes
in such abundance in America - almost all people can receive
clean water anytime they want."

One possible answer to Forbush's question came through the
water-themed worship service which the summer school participants
prepared for the Lutheran congregation of Geneva. With prayer,
songs and acting the service created links between the biblical
imagery of the "living water" and the modern day reality of many
people not having access to water.

The first generation of summer school "alumni", whether they
came from the privileged regions of North America and Europe,
where a constant supply of clean water is taken for granted, or
whether they are faced with its scarcity in their every day
lives, will not forget the need for water is shared by all. 

And they will not keep to themselves the realization that
consumer patterns in their own communities - concerning energy,
meat, traffic and many other things - affect the water supply of
people living on the other side of the globe.

As they travelled back to their home countries in early August,
some already had concrete ideas about how to spread what they
have learned, for example performing plays about the water crisis
in public places or beverage stores. Others think about
organizing regional summer schools. For knowledge, just like
faith, multiplies when it is shared.

>[859 words]

(*) Annegret Kapp, WCC web editor, is a member of the
Evangelical Church in Württemberg, Germany. 

More information about the Ecumenical Water Network:
http://water.oikoumene.org ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=5520
)

>Photo gallery:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6187

>Video clips from the EWN summer school:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=5520

Listen to comments by participants of the EWN summer school (mp3
format, 3.9 MB):
http://oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/sounds/2008/ewnschool08.mp3

>### SIDEBAR ###

>Christians raising awareness on water 

The EWN Summer School on Water 2008 was organized by the
Ecumenical Water Network, 28 July to 4 August, in order to
educate a new generation of Christian leaders in awareness
raising for the global water crisis. 

The participants heard from water experts with international
human rights and development organizations about causes and
consequences of the crisis as well as ways to tackle it. But they
also learned about ways to take up the issue in their home
churches and Christian youth networks.

It was the first time that young Christians of different
denominations including Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants came
together for an international summer school on water. 

The Ecumenical Water Network is an initiative of churches,
Christian organizations and movements working on people's access
to water around the world and community-based solutions to the
water crisis. Its objective is to bring forward a common
Christian witness in the debate on water issues. The World
Council of Churches hosts the network's secretariat and helps to
facilitate cooperation among the partners involved.

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect
WCC policy. This material may be reprinted freely, providing
credit is given to the author. 

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.