FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 
World Water Day

22 March 2026

Water and inequality

COLLECT OF THE DAY

God of all consolation and hope:
you breathe life into dry bones and
weary souls:
pour out your Spirit upon us,
that we may face despair and death
in the hope of resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Introduction

The Theme for World Water day focuses on water and inequality. Women and girls, as well a vulnerable communities are particularly impacted by both lack of access to drinking water and the disasters caused by flooding 

Lack of access to clean water affects women and girls because in many societies they are primarily responsible for water collection, household hygiene, and caregiving. Imagine missing school—not because you’re sick or skipping—but because you have to walk miles just to get water. For millions of girls around the world, that’s everyday life. Instead of focusing on homework or hanging out with friends, they’re carrying heavy containers that cause back and neck pain. Some don’t even have safe bathrooms at school, which makes managing their periods stressful and embarrassing. So they stay home—and fall behind.

And it’s not just about school. Walking long distances to isolated water sources can be dangerous. Dirty water spreads diseases like cholera and typhoid, and when family members get sick, it’s usually women and girls who take care of them. When clean water isn’t accessible, it affects everything—education, health, safety, and job opportunities. It keeps families stuck in a cycle of poverty. Access to clean water shouldn’t be a privilege. It’s basic. And changing that could change millions of lives.

Drought and floods impact unequally on the most vulnerable communities. Lerato Mutsila wrote of the recent devastating flooding in Limpopo, South Africa, “It was only when I walked through Mbaula, one of the hardest-hit villages in Giyani, beside the quiet Mbaula River, that the true power of water fully dawned on us. We walked through homes split open like cardboard boxes, fields once promising maize harvests smothered in mud and debris. We traced the more than 1km path along which one survivor had been swept. People described the water arriving with a roar; not a rise, but a wall that gave no warning, offered no mercy, and left nightmares behind.” 

These floods are not isolated. They are part of a pattern we can no longer ignore. South Africa has endured devastating floods and prolonged droughts followed by sudden deluges and intensifying heatwaves. Globally, flooding, fires and storms continue to rewrite climate records. The science is clear: a warming world brings greater extremes – and vulnerable communities are paying the highest price.

What Limpopo demands now is not sympathy, but action. Climate adaptation must mean early warning systems that reach rural villages, land-use planning that respects floodplains, resilient housing, protected ecosystems and disaster responses that are swift, coordinated and humane. (Daily Maverick)

So in the face of lack of access to clean water, droughts, and flooding what message of hope can we find in today’s readings?

Ezekiel 37:1–14 — When the Land Is Dry

Ezekiel speaks to a displaced people whose trauma is inseparable from environmental loss. Exile meant separation from their homeland,  from the rivers, and rainfall patterns that sustained their lives and their cultural way of life. The valley of dry bones reflects ecological collapse alongside social despair. The images here reflect the lack of water in the burning desert. The dry bones, what more powerful image of the extreme dehydration, the drought and the lifeless soil. I am sure you have seen images of areas impacted by extreme drought such as the images of northern Namibia where the cattle died, leaving only bones. The once fertile valley is now barren, the rich topsoil lost, it has become a dustbowl. 

And into this place of devastation, the Spirit of God, the breath of God (ruach) comes. This is the wind  that precedes rain, the life-giving force that  creation is waiting for. The vision is powerful precisely because there is no water. Life cannot return without moisture. In a world facing prolonged droughts and water insecurity, this text names the reality of communities who feel “cut off” because their water sources have failed.

Restoration comes not through human engineering but through God’s life-giving breath, reminding us that water is a gift not a  commodity. The promise “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live” links the renewal of people with the re-watering of the land.

Where water has disappeared, hope feels impossible. Ezekiel insists that God’s restoring power reaches even the driest landscapes.

Psalm 130 — Crying from the Depths

Psalm 130 is a communal lament. The “depths” evoke deep waters, chaos, and overwhelming threat — imagery familiar to communities facing floods, rising seas, and polluted waterways.

“Out of the depths”: the image is of drowning in the floodwaters, chaos, loss of control and terror.
Here water is not scarce but dangerous. The psalm gives voice to those overwhelmed by water-related disasters and by the slow violence of contamination and sea-level rise.

The psalm does not deny fear, but it refuses despair. Waiting for the morning aligns hope with creation’s daily rhythms. Redemption is imagined not as escape from water, but as God restoring balance to what threatens life.
Water can both sustain and destroy. Faith holds space for lament while trusting God’s commitment to restore life-giving order.

Romans 8:6–11 — Life in the Spirit

Taken together with the Ezekiel reading this is a powerful passage  the spiritual dead bones and flesh are filled with the Spirit and come alive spiritually.

Paul contrasts two ways of living: one that leads to death, and one animated by the Spirit. This is not a rejection of the body, but of destructive patterns of life.

Again we read of the spirit , the life giving breath of God. This is renewal and resurrection, God refusing to abandon embodied life. 

Living “according to the flesh” can be read as living against the limits of creation — draining rivers, polluting aquifers, privatising water. Life in the Spirit reflects right relationship, including just and sustainable water use. The Spirit who raised Jesus is the same Spirit that animates rivers, rainfall, wetlands, and bodies. Resurrection hope therefore includes the healing of waters that sustain life.

Care for water is not optional ethics; it is evidence of life in the Spirit.

John 11:1–45 — Life from the Tomb

The raising of Lazarus reveals Jesus as Lord over life and death. The miracle takes place within the earth itself, in a cave sealed with stone. The tears of Jesus are the waters of grief and compassion. And just as in the Ezekiel and Romans passages we read that life is stronger than death.

Jesus weeps — God’s solidarity with all who grieve loss, including the loss of rivers, springs, and safe drinking water. Resurrection does not deny decay but confronts it.

The command “Unbind him” suggests that life restored by God requires human participation. On World Water Day, this speaks to communal responsibility: protecting sources, sharing access, and resisting systems that bind life through water injustice.

God’s power over death includes the renewal of the material conditions that make life possible.

What is God calling you to unbind today?

LITURGY
Collect 

Creator God
Pour out on us the water of life
That we might quench our thirst
And draw strength from you 
Help us to stand alongside
Those who struggle daily for clean water,
So that all might be refreshed and renewed
By your abundant love
Revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

(Season of Creation)

OPENING SENTENCE

The river of God is full of water
Let us worship and praise Him

PENITENCE

God of mercy, we come before you seeking forgiveness because we know how much we
have failed you.
You created a world of beauty; you gave your people paradise.
But we have not been good keepers of the earth we inherited.
The rivers are polluted; the air in our cities is made impure;
forests are felled and fertile land turned to desert;
and, for pride and greed, whole species are endangered.

Absolution 

Creator God, who brought life to the dead bones,
who brought water out of the rock, 
and quenched the thirst of those dying in the wilderness, 
You gave the living waters 
so that those who taste them would never thirst, 
Listen to all those who truly confess 
and grant us forgiveness so that we act responsibly in our 
use of water, 
become sensitive to the desperate needs of those 
without water, 
and gain wisdom in conserving and preserving water so that rivers roll out in justice among all nations and all peoples. 
Amen. 

CONFESSION OF FAITH 

We believe in God, who creates all things,
who embraces all things, who celebrates all
things,
who is present in every part of the fabric of
creation.
We believe in God as the source of all life,
who baptizes this planet with living water.
We believe in Jesus Christ, the suffering one,
the poor one,
the malnourished one, the climate refugee,
who loves and cares for this world and who
suffers with it.
And we believe in Jesus Christ, the seed of life,
who came to reconcile and renew this world
and everything in it.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God,
who moves with God and who moves among
and with us today.
We believe in everlasting life in God.
And we believe in the hope that one day
God will put an end to death and all
destructive forces 

 (Gurukkul Theological College India)

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

May clean clear water bless us by well-spring or waterfall,
life in abundance – flowing, cleansing, refreshing.
May we use wisely God’s gift of water,
cherish each drop, shrinking all scrub land and deserts.
Jesus, pour your water, greening and satisfying,
on the dry dustiness of the deserts within us.
Holy Spirit, flow through us, revive our faithfulness,
cleanse our sinfulness, fill us with prayerfulness.

(Chris Pollill)

Let us pray for the whole Earth, the oceans, rivers and streams. 
May our lives be so balanced that greed makes way for need
and the tendency to waste makes way for a commitment to save. 
Let those who contribute to the rising sea levels shed tears of repentance and learn to lead a simple life so that others can ‘simply live’. 
We pray for all organisations involved in the preservation of water, and with it, your gift of life. 
Help, guide and sustain them in their endeavours.

Lord, we pray for all communities involved in the issues of water justice. 
Give us compassion to walk with those who lack the water of life. 
Help us to empty ourselves of prejudice and fill us with a vision of solidarity and fellowship so that we can work together in conserving the gift of water.
Lord, we pray for the universal church and its mission and vision. 

Inspire us to work towards water justice.
Transform our lives so that we may be channels of justice – not just in what we preach, but in our daily practice. 
Let your churches be role models within our communities in conserving water and preserving life in all its fullness. 
Bring churches together to work in unity so that justice will prevail and water will be available for our generation and future generations

(Water justice: CTBI 2013)

Water is blessed that the congregation is sprinkled

COMMISSIONING AND BLESSING 
In the seas and in the rain, God bestowed on Earth the gift of water,
so that his creation could flourish into life.

(sprinkling of water)

Through the waters of baptism, God beckons us to a new creation,
so that we may share in a life beyond life.
Today, by water also, including this water here,
may the Covenant that we have made be sealed,
and creation renewed and restored to God’s eternal purposes.

Go forth now to care for God’s world.
Go out into the world as heralds of a new rainbow covenant
and preach the good news to all creation.
And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with you all now and forever, Amen

   (Operation Noah launch, Coventry Cathedral)

HYMNS AND CHORUSES

As the deer pants for the water: https://youtu.be/Jv6Z8t1Tz_g

All who are weak: https://youtu.be/rfRWRR6EeIk

I heard the voice of Jesus Say Come unto me (Kingsfold)
https://youtu.be/y9y17sDXE88

Are you thirsty? (Getty) https://youtu.be/TrTZklB-JVk

Glorious things of thee are spoken (Austria) 
https://youtu.be/SNQOcpECk4A

All Creatures of our God and King? (Does include hallelujah)

Let your living water flow over my soul

Oceans Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) – Hillsong United lyrics