Indian Churches called to ‘MINISTER TO SAVE WATER’

PRESS NOTE

Indian Churches called to ‘MINISTER TO SAVE WATER’

At the instance of

Week Of Prayer for Christian Unity (Unity Octave) | 18 – 25 January 2015

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Unity Octave BackdropNagpur (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 athttp://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

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