SOUTH Melbourne priest Bob Maguire says church leaders across Australia can pray for rain "until they go black in the face" but it won't solve the water crisis."Maybe our prayers need a creative spin, like 'O God, please turn this wine into water'," the Catholic priest said.
"Now I know a lot of people won't like it, particularly if people are making their prayers over a nice bottle of Grange, but this water problem is bigger than all of us boys and girls down here on ground level."
Father Maguire, of St Peter and Paul's Parish, is among many Melbourne priests warning drought-stricken farmers not to pin all their hopes on divine intervention.
"Praying for rain is great and we will be doing it in our services, but we have to be prepared to work on finding solutions to the problem ourselves," he said.
Anglican priest the Rev Howard Langmead, of St John's Church in Brunswick West, said rain prayers had regularly been included in weekend services.
"Certainly, we will continue to plead the cause, but I don't believe God will always do what we ask him," he said.
"The good thing about prayer is that it can also make us change our response to things too."
Bentleigh Uniting Church minister the Rev Dr Ji Zhang said that part of his weekly service would be dedicated to praying for rain.
"We have the conviction that God will listen to our prayers," he said.
"But sometimes God will not intervene because we need to take action ourselves by coming together as a community to support those in need, like our farmers."
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