When I began my work at Creation Justice Ministries, I was given a list of programs for which I would be responsible. On that list was promotion and program development for the Season of Creation. My first thought was “Great!” My second thought was “what is the Season of Creation?” It didn’t take long to get my question answered. The Season of Creation (SOC) is a five week period going through all of September into October designed to celebrate our relationship to the Creator by renewing our relationship with Creation.

Celebration of the SOC has been ecumenical and global since 1989 and has strong input from the Orthodox church around the globe as well as the world council of churches. I was incredibly excited to learn all of this, but then another question arose for me: I’ve been in the church all of my… why have I never heard about this? 

When I ask my friends, a disproportionate number of whom are clergy about whether or not they have heard about the SOC, the responses are in stark contrast. Either they have known about this season for decades, observe it every year, and can’t imagine what their fall would be like without it or they have no idea what I’m talking about and wonder why we would want another liturgical season.

For my work at Creation Justice Ministries and my role on the board at Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, having a time period set aside to refocus our hearts and minds on the gift that Creation is (and the Giver of that gift) is incredibly important. Creation Justice Ministries is an ecumenical partner organization of IPC whose work is based in helping Christian communities and organizations live in better relationship with God’s Creation. We do this through theological education, helping people see the connections between their faith and ecology, and advocacy work that mobilizes people to speak up on policies that benefit our environment, particularly at the federal level. As the coordinator of the theological education side of the house, much of my work has been around getting people to connect the dots between their faith tradition and the climate crisis we find ourselves in. My experience in the last year and a half has been that these issues don’t often have much impact on the community if they are not addressed in worship. 

We often ask the lay people who are a part of our programs about how often they hear about environmental issues from the pulpit. The most common answer is “never”, the second most common is once a year, on the Sunday closest to Earth Day. When we ask pastors, even those who care deeply about these issues about why they don’t address them more, they express concerns ranging from worry about being too political to insecurities about not knowing enough of the science. And for many churches, particularly in this time of church attendance decline, there is a feeling that there are simply bigger issues to deal with. Part of my work then is to help bring the issues of our climate changed world into the center of worship life and the Season of Creation gives us an amazing opportunity to do just that. 

Back in August, Creation Justice Ministries hosted a “Season of Creation 101” webinar to introduce folks who may be unfamiliar with the concept. It was an immense joy for me as a board member to have that opportunity to highlight the ways that congregations in IPC’s network have been commemorating the season over the years.

An additional resource that we’ve created for the SOC is the Green Lectionary podcast. The podcast takes a text from the Revised Common Lectionary and encourages preachers to find ways to address the text through a creation justice lens. We’ll also be hosting Monday evening Vespers with Creation, a short time of prayer and reflection to refocus our hearts and minds as the day closes and the seasons change.

Over my three years as board member for the Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake I have become more and more convinced that the voices of people of faith are crucial if we are going to make any progress in this climate changed reality. And I use that language, “climate changed,” intentionally. We can no longer afford to act as if the effects we are having on the planet are some far off reality. We see it everyday in the shifts in rising temperatures, increased storm activity, and the severity of forest fires. People of faith need to be vocal on these issues and they need to recognize them as central to their faith traditions, regardless of what that tradition is. The season of creation offers us an opportunity to speak on behalf of our common home and to recommit ourselves to its protection.