Eastern Synod Climate Justice Task Force
Offers Resources for Celebrating the 2024 Season of Creation.
The Climate Justice Task Force has met three times since its formation at the Synod Assembly this past June. Today we offer some resources for marking the Season of Creation (1 September – 4 October) during worship. For the next Synod e-news the Task Force will offer some suggestions for climate advocacy activities for your congregation.
What is the Season of Creation?
The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. During the Season of Creation, we join our siblings in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home.
Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios proclaimed 1 September as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989. In fact, the Orthodox church year starts on that day with a commemoration of how God created the world.
The World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a season, extending the celebration from 1 September until 4 October. Following the leadership of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, the WCC, Christians worldwide have embraced the season as part of their annual calendar. Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church’s warm welcoming of the season official in 2015.
In recent years, statements from religious leaders around the world have also encouraged the faithful to take time to recommit to care for creation not just during the month-long celebration but everyday especially as we face head on the climate crisis.
The season starts 1 September, the Day of Prayer for Creation, and ends 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations.
Throughout the month-long celebration, the world’s 2.2 billion Christians come together to care for our common home.
RESOURCES
The Season of Creation Steering and Advisory Committees annually establish a theme and offer some resources. This year’s theme is “To Hope and Act with Creation” with the symbol “First Fruits of Hope,” based on Romans 8:19-25. You can read more about the theme on page 13 of the document, “Celebration Guide for the Season of Creation.”
Liturgical Resources
Below are some resources that we hope will be helpful in your congregation’s observance of the season. We along with these resources we suggest incorporating experiences within worship that help us remember our connection with creation: worshiping outside, bringing elements of creation inside, inviting people to recall times of interaction with creation, and many more ideas. Last year at St Mark’s each week we gave a different item, based upon a weekly theme, for the people to hold: sea shell, stone, leaf, pine cone, etcetera while providing a time of remembrance of encounters with a specific element of creation as part of the confession.
Creation Liturgy – A Creation Inclusive Liturgy for Holy Communion in an ecumenical setting.
Weekly Supplemental Liturgical Material
These resources offer prayers, liturgical exchanges, scriptural commentary, sermon ideas based upon the Revised Common Lectionary, RCL, for each Sunday during the Season of Creation.
Eco Congregation, Church of Scottland –
This link from the JPIT, Joint Public Issues Team is the most user friendly way to these resources form Eco Congregation, Church of Scottland.
Anglican Season of Creation Manual
Other resources
From the Laudato Si’ Movement
“Via Creationis” – a service based on the Creation Story in Genesis chapter 1. It is mostly a praise of the glories of creation.
LSM Prayer Book – A great collection of prayers and devotions around creation and its care.