Creation Time 2015

Following on from the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation on 1 September, many Christian denominations across the world are celebrating Creation Time, running from 1 September to 4 October - the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. This is a time when people of faith focus their attention on how to care for Earth and all of creation. This year, as we approach the UN Climate Summit in Paris, Creation Time may never have felt more timely.

In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch suggested that 1 September, the first day of the Orthodox Church's year, should be observed as a day "of protection of the natural environment". Ten years later the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN) widened this proposal, urging churches to adopt a Time for Creation stretching from 1 September to 4 October and this was endorsed by the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Romania in 2007, which recommended that the period "be dedicated to prayer for the protection of Creation and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles that reverse our contribution to climate change".

Since 2008 Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) has compiled a programme of resources to encourage and assist churches to observe Creation Time. These include suggestions on a variety of ways in which churches, groups and individuals can choose to focus on a creation theme at this particular time of the year.

The Columban Missionaries in Australia have created a downloadable Season of Creation Resource to help Catholics better celebrate Spring and God as Creator. Based on the liturgical Scripture and Prayers of the four Sundays of September, the Resource offers stories, quotations and explanations about God's love active in all of creation.

See: www.columban.org.au/resources/season-of-creation-sundays-of-september-year-b

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland Creation Time 2015 page, containing material produced by Eco-Congregation in Scotland and Ireland. Some has been written to help prepare and equip churches to respond to the key United Nations Climate Change conference (COP21), due to take place in Paris in early December 2015.https://ctbi.org.uk/creation-time-2015/

Operation Noah Sermon Notes for Creation Time: http://operationnoah.org/resources/sermon-notes-creation-time-climate-change-purposes-god/

Other links:

European Christian Environmental Network
www.ecen.org/content/creation-time-2015

Green Christian
www.greenchristian.org.uk