Season of Creation

Beginning on September, 3rd, we will be starting a Season of Creation.  This first began in the Orthodox church in 1989, and the World council of Churches then extended this to other participating churches. The theme for 2023 is Let Justice and Peace Flow

The prophet Amos cries out: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24) and so we are called to join the river of justice and peace, to take up climate and ecological justice, and to speak out with and for communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity. As the people of God, we must work together on behalf of all Creation, as part of that mighty river of peace and justice.

The symbol for 2023 is a mighty river. Biodiversity is being lost at a rate not seen since the last mass extinction. The futures of young people are threatened by the cascading impacts of the loss of biodiversity and a changing climate. The urgency grows and we must make visible peace with Earth and on Earth, at the same time that justice calls us to repentance and a change of attitude and actions. As we join the river of justice and peace with others then hope is created instead of despair.

Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.  – Isaiah 43:19

The 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church recognized climate change as “an all-encompassing social crisis and moral emergency that impacts and interconnects every aspect of pastoral concern including health, poverty, employment, racism, social justice, and family life and that can only be addressed by a Great Work involving every sector of society, including the Church.”

Why is it important to mark the Season of Creation?

• Because of the urgency of climate and ecological crisis and the need for a bold, prophetic response.
• Because of our Gospel call to grow in faith as we affirm that God in Christ loves, redeems, and sustains the whole of Creation, not only human beings.

What is the urgency of climate and ecological crisis?

“We’ve changed the planet, changed it in large and fundamental ways. Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding, and burning in ways that no human has ever seen.” — Bill McKibben

Because of the relentless burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, the world’s climate has become disrupted and unstable. The web of life is unraveling before our eyes. Human society is at risk of collapse within decades along with mass extinctions of species and forced migrations.

• Over the last fifty years, 60% of the planet’s mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish have been wiped out by human land development and habitat destruction.
• More than 1 million species are on the way to extinction.
• Oceans are acidifying and warming, and living fish are being displaced with dead plastic. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs dying, and ecosystems collapsing.
• Record-breaking and intensifying weather patterns are increasing deadly droughts, floods, storms, and heat.
• Food supply disruption due to weather events, water shortages, and unpredictable seasons will increase, leading to mass starvation events.

What does Christianity have to do with ecology?

• God the Creator pronounced the world “very good” (Gen. 1:31), and gave humans the task to “till and keep” the Earth (Gen. 2:15) as stewards and caregivers rather than owners (Ps. 24:1).
• Christian saints, including the prophets, Jesus, and many of our mystics, including the Desert Fathers and Saint Francis, lived in close relationship with Creation. As Saint Paul wrote (Rom. 1:20), humanity encounters and dwells with God through the natural world.
• Destruction of nature is a sign of estrangement from God: “There is no knowledge of God in the land. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing,” Hos. 4:1b, 3; “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees,” Rev. 7:3.
• The Paschal mystery includes all of Creation: everything has been redeemed in the work of Jesus Christ, the Word through whom all things were made (Jhn. 1:3). In him, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19-20; c.f. Eph. 1:10, 2 Cor. 5:19). Creation is thus made new (Rev. 21:5).
• Jesus said that loving our neighbors is like unto loving God. Our neighbors include people of the Third World who now face the worst effects of the crisis built by the First World; climate refugees; low-wealth and minority communities, which are hurt first and hardest by the changing climate as social justice is inextricably linked to ecological justice; and future generations who depend on us to leave them a habitable world. God’s “everlasting covenant” is with “every living creature” (Gen. 9:8-17)—they, too, are the neighbors we are summoned to love.
• We proclaim a Gospel of salvation that includes all of Creation, not only human beings. Jesus commissioned his disciples, saying, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). As disciples of Jesus, our mission is to bring good news in word and deed to the whole Creation.
• Our discipleship bears witness to a love that transcends death. In baptism, we die to ourselves and live in Christ, and are delivered from undue fear of death (c.f. Rom. 8:38-39, 2 Tim. 1:7, Heb. 2:14-15). This experience empowered the early Christians to resist the unjust powers-that-be: they “turned the world upside down” (Act. 17:6) and “acted contrary to the decrees of the emperor” (Act. 17:7), obeying God rather than any human authority (Act. 5:29) in resisting the forces of death and destruction to the point of suffering and martyrdom.
• Christian hope is in the renewal (Mat. 19:28) and restoration (Act. 3:21) of all things. Our participation with God in creating a more just and habitable world and living more gently on Earth is how we share in what Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls the “supreme work”4 of Jesus Christ, who reconciles us to God, one another, and God’s whole Creation. The good news of God in Christ is for all creatures and the whole Earth.

What must be done?

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns we have only a short amount of time to limit the worst of the effects of the crisis by:

• Reversing deforestation. Keeping and rebuilding our forests and wetlands is one third of the solution alone.
• Stop burning fossil fuels entirely by switching to renewable energy sources and dramatically reducing the demand from developed societies, especially the wealthy (top 1% use 30% of energy) and military forces.
• Developing and using better agricultural practices.
• Adapting to a changed world, especially by redirecting resources to the Third World and climate refugees.

Learn more

To learn more and take action, please visit the Creation Care ministries of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, and your specific Province and Diocese. Global and national resources can be found at:

• The Anglican Communion Environmental Network (http://acen.anglicancommunion.org)
• The Episcopal Church Ministry of Creation Care (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/creation-care)

Season of Creation Prayer

Creator of All,

From your communion of love life sprung forth like a mighty river and the whole cosmos came into being.

On this Earth of overflowing love, the Word was made flesh and went forth with the life-giving waters proclaiming peace and justice for all creation.

You called human beings to till and keep your garden. You placed us into right relationship with each creature, but we failed to listen to the cries of the Earth and the cries of the most vulnerable. We broke with the flowing communion of love and sinned against you by not safeguarding the conditions for life.

We lament the loss of our fellow species and their habitats, we grieve the loss of human cultures, along with the lives and livelihoods that have been displaced or perished, and we ache at the sight of an economy of death, war and violence that we have inflicted on ourselves and on the Earth.

Open our ears to your creative, reconciling and sustaining Word that calls to us through the book of Scripture and the book of creation. Bless us once again with your life-giving waters so that the Creator Spirit may let justice and peace flow in our hearts and overflow into all creation.

Open our hearts to receive the living waters of God’s justice and peace, and to share it with our suffering brothers and sisters, all creatures around us, and all creation.

Bless us to walk together with all people of good will so that the many streams of the living waters of God’s justice and peace may become a mighty river all over the Earth.

In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ.

Amen.