PRESS NOTE
Indian
Churches called to 'MINISTER TO SAVE WATER'
At
the instance of
____________________________
Nagpur (India) 14 Jan
2015 The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an international Christian ecumenical observance kept
annually between 18 January and 25 January. It is actually an octave, that is, an
observance lasting eight days. The Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity began in 1908 as the Octave
of Christian Unity, and focused on prayer for church unity.
In India, each
year, the Commission on Unity, Mission and Evangelism of the National Council
of Churches in India facilitates the Indian Christian communities to come
together for prayer, fellowship and witness during this time. This year, from January 18 – 25, 2015, with
the theme “Water is Right – Water is Life”, the prayers will lead the water
campaign with a more expansive focus to include water issues in the list of
concerns for all people.
In cognition of the urgent need for understanding and resolving water crises, the NCCI has developed and initiated a campaign with a serious commitment to facilitate and encourage Churches and Christian institutions to involve in the ministries to save water by a campaign titled as “Water is Right – Water is Life”. In keeping with the Unity Octave 2015 theme, it is hoped that the campaign will gain momentum and find substantial expressions of commitment such as rain-water harvesting and the such, from all quarters and at all levels.
The Commission
helps these prayer fellowships by contextually re-producing the World Council
of Churches' 'Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Unity Octave)' prayer
resource booklet available for everyone. This year the commission has also
initiated translations of this booklet to a few regional languages such as
Marathi, Hindi and Tamil, and has made these available on the NCCI website.
These documents can be downloaded from the resource\download
section of our website at http://www.nccindia.in/nccinew/index.php/resources/download.html
This year the
global Christian communities are invited to hold inter-confessional dialogue on
'water' joining the Brazilian Christians on the theme 'Jesus said to her - give
me a drink' (John 4:7). It is an unavoidable concern for the faith communities
to initiate a dialogue on Water and prayerfully pledge to save water and care
for earth.
This year the Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity will be observed by several congregations,
Regional Councils and Institutions.
The NCCI
Secretariat will join the regional Councils in organizing "Water
Conclaves" in several place such as Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi,
Madurai, Mangalore and Nagpur, from different perspectives within the specific
context. You are most welcome to contact the Secretariat for more details.
Several
Congregations, Christian Organizations, Theological Colleges and Seminaries
also have decided to observe the NCCI Sunday on the 25 January 2015. Please be
in touch with your own Pastor, Institutional Head and the Theological Seminaries
for more details.
In case if you wish
to organize one you are most welcome to do so. Please visit NCCI Website (www.nccindia.in) for
schedules and details.
Ecologically Yours,
Rt. Rev. Dr. Taranath S Sagar
President - NCCI
HG Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos
Chairperson CUME
Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad
General Secretary - NCCI
Rev. R. Christopher Rajkumar
Executive Secretary - CUME
