Creator of Life,
The Earth is full of Your creatures,
and by Your wisdom you made them all.
At Your word, the Earth brought forth plants
yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit,
the waters teemed with swarms of living creatures of every kind,
and world was filled with every kind of winged bird,
walking animal, and creatures that creep upon the ground.
Mountains, plains, rocks, and rivers shelter diverse communities,
and through the changing seasons Your Spirit renews cycles of life.
During this Season of Creation,
open our eyes to see the precious diversity that is all around us.
Enlighten our minds to appreciate the delicate balance
maintained by each creature.
Inspire us to conserve the precious habitats that nurture this web of life.
In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today begins a mini-season in the Christian liturgical year called Creation Time. As some of you know from either experience in my congregations or my blog entries of past years I observed Creation Time in the weeks of September and early October for a decade or so before retirement. It is an opportunity for Christians to gratefully acknowledge God, the Creator, to celebrate the wonder of the complex web of Creation, and to ask how we might "live with respect in Creation," as the United Church New Creed invites to do.
Not every congregation celebrates Creation Time, even in liturgical churches which are conscious of the importance of caring for our planetary home. I'm not sure why because this is an opportunity to address the almost daily bleak news about environmental degradation and the climate crisis in the hopeful framework of our Christian faith.
Each year there are more resources for Creation Time which are not hard to find, online, and they come from around the world and from many different denominations. Four years ago I led a study group on Pope Francis' excellent encyclical called Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home and I've decided to reread it this year. It had just been released and I read it in preparation for the study on an island off the coast of Newfoundland. I will read it again in the same setting, a place of rugged beauty which reminds us every day we are there of the magnificence of Creation.
Perhaps you can take time to honour the Creator and Creation each day from now until October 4th (the Feast of St Francis) in some way.
http://www.usccb.org/about/leadership/holy-see/francis/pope-francis-encyclical-laudato-si-on-environment.cfm
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i9Zp1eEGKKxq2O2X4ycvE-vrNQrPKDNx/view
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