Another summer of extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and flooding events around the world may have you and your church more concerned than ever about climate change. The CRCNA’s Climate Witness Project offers resources, events, and projects to help churches explore our role as people called by God to help heal a suffering earth. If your church is ready to go deeper, you might join Christians around the world this fall in observing the Season of Creation.
The Season of Creation is a relatively recent ecumenical initiative, observed each year from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4. To quote the official website, “The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action for our common home. Together, the ecumenical family around the world unites to pray, protect, and advocate for God’s creation.”
The Season of Creation provides a rich opportunity to recognize ... our shared faith and our shared concern for the planet.
The initiative to create an intentional focus on creation care began in 1989, when the Orthodox Patriarch declared Sept. 1, the first day of the Orthodox liturgical year, as a day of prayer for the earth. Over the decades, as more and more international church alliances awoke to the urgency of the climate crisis, the day of prayer grew into a season, beginning on Sept. 1 and concluding on the Feast of St. Francis, Oct. 4.
The World Council of Churches has supported the Season of Creation for decades, and today Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches participate. The World Communion of Reformed Churches is one of the official partners along with many others. Thus, the Season of Creation provides a rich opportunity to recognize with millions of Christians around the world our shared faith and our shared concern for the planet.
While the Season of Creation is mostly a grass-roots effort, there is an advisory committee and a steering committee made up of an ecumenical, international group of distinguished leaders. Their job is simply to provide resources, coordination, and idea sharing. In recent years, they’ve chosen a theme. This year, the theme is “Listen to the Voice of Creation” with Exodus 3:1-12 (the burning bush story) as the focus text.
I personally found it deeply healing, in the confession and lament portion of the service
How should you and your church observe this season? Well, that’s up to you. Creativity and resource development are encouraged. Many churches and Christian groups organize prayer services, giving thanks for this vibrant, beautiful world, lamenting our human role in damaging the earth God loves, and calling one another to deeper commitment. Some churches organize service projects or advocacy events. Many integrate the Season of Creation into their worship for those five Sundays.
My own church, Church of the Servant CRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has a long history of sustainability work, but last year, for the first time, our Climate Care Team and Worship Team collaborated to bring the Season of Creation into our worship services. We developed a liturgy that we used for each of the five Sundays.
I hope that observing the Season of Creation reawakens us to... the work we must do together to heal God’s beloved world.
You can read more about this liturgy in this essay I wrote about it last year, which includes background and commentary. I personally found it deeply healing, in the confession and lament portion of the service, to speak the truth about our feelings of anxiety, guilt, and grief over our damaged earth. Fittingly, we did so in the context of God’s forgiveness and mercy, embracing those harder feelings with the grace of the Gospel. By integrating biblically based creation concerns into every liturgical element, the service invited us into deeper gratitude, attention, and conviction while assuring us of God’s faithful, redemptive purposes for all creation.
The congregation responded appreciatively to our experiment last year, and I look forward to worshiping with this liturgy again in a few weeks. I hope that observing the Season of Creation reawakens us to our global Christian partners and the work we must do together to heal God’s beloved world.
It’s not too late for you and your church to participate in the Season of Creation this year. For more information and ideas, you might take a look at these resources:
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