The Epiphany in Creation

Diana Butler Bass is a Christian writer and theologian, and one of her many books is Grounded: Finding God in the World -- A Spiritual Revolution. It explores what it is to live faithfully on the Earth, celebrating the gifts of land, and sea, and sky, rather than simply waiting for a future heavenly promise.

On Sunday evening she attended a service at her home congregation, St's Aidan's Episcopal Church,  not far from Washington DC. She tweeted her appreciation later for the theme Mass on the Epiphany in Creation: A Eucharist Drawing on the Poetry of Mary Oliver.

This caught my attention because it connects the light of Epiphany with the created, Created world. And Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize winner who died a year ago tomorrow, was a nature mystic, who was not attached to any religious institution for many decades yet conveyed a sense of the holy and wonder through her poems. I've heard that she returned to her childhood Roman Catholic faith in later years, but I really don't know. One of her last books of selected poetry was called Devotions and there is a devotional quality to many of her poems.

I contacted St. Aidan's and the Rev. John Baker kindly responded with the outline/order of worship for the service. I commend the participants for a service that interweaves Oliver poems with scripture and hymns and Epiphany themes.They also celebrated the eucharist or communion, the sharing of bread and wine, gifts from the earth. 

I hope this sort of liturgical creativity which honours Creation takes root and flourishes everywhere.