Seasons of Creation

Many Anglican communities around the world particpate each year in this program.  We will endeavour to use some of the resources ourselves, here at Ascension.  Archbishop Mark Macdonald, our National Indigenous Anglican Bishop, is a part of the Advisory Committee.

Below you will find a link to the information and resource page which also highlights the many global partners of this iniative that was started in 1989, including the Anglican Church, the United Nations and many others.

Also, the prayer for this year, which we will be drawing upon liturgically as well.

A Letter from the Advisory Committee

Our dear Relatives in Jesus our Saviour and Lord,

From September 1 to October 4, the Christian family celebrates the good gift of creation.
This global celebration began in 1989 with the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s recognition of
the Day of Prayer for Creation and is now embraced by the wide ecumenical community.
Prayer is a powerful experience and tool to raise awareness and foster transformational
relations and ministry.

This year our theme is A Home for All? Renewing the oikos of God. It is our hope to
work together to develop a larger Biblical and cosmological horizon, not only to be
edified by the texts themselves, but to develop a new way to see Scripture, life, and
Earth all in the Oikos of God and to acknowledge the wisdom from countless sisters and
brothers helping all to renew our world as an interconnected and interdependent global
beloved community.

In Genesis God set a dome over the Earth. The word ”dome“ is where we get words such
as ‘domicile’ and ’domestic’ — in other words, God puts us all is — all people, all life —
under the same domed roof — we are all in the house, the oikos of God. God gave
humans the ministry to take care and cultivate this oikos of God. The Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. and others have called the oikos of God ”the Beloved Community,” a
community in which all of life are equally members, though each has a different role.
The oikos is a home for all but it is now in danger because of greed, exploitation,
disrespect, disconnection and systematic degradation. The whole creation is still crying
out. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution the geography where we recognize
God’s creative power has continued to shrink. Today only scraps of the human
consciousness recognize God acting to restore and heal the Earth. We have forgotten
that we live in the household of God, the oikos, the Beloved Community. Our
fundamental interconnectedness has been at best forgotten, at worst deliberately
denied.

It is our hope and prayer that we can become again this beloved community of
intentional discipleship. We hope to move beyond the programmatic and didactic
aspects of life to the prophetic and spiritual life, to the action and way of life, which is
shaped by Jesus.

May we be the champions to renew life, the servant leaders of all life in the Beloved
Community, the oikos of God.

In God’s Grace,
Members of the Season of Creation Advisory Committee

For More Information & Resources, Click Here

Season of Creation 2021 Prayer

Creator of All,
We are grateful that from your communion of love you created our planet to be a home
for all. By your Holy Wisdom you made the Earth to bring forth a diversity of living beings
that filled the soil, water and air. Each part of creation praises you in their being, and
cares for one another from our place in the web of life.

With the Psalmist, we sing your praise that in your house “even the sparrow finds a
home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.” We remember
that you call human beings to keep your garden in ways that honor the dignity of each
creature and conserve their place in the abundance of life on Earth.

But we know that our will to power pushes the planet beyond her limits. Our
consumption is out of harmony and rhythm with Earth’s capacity to heal herself.
Habitats are left barren or lost. Species are lost and systems fail. Where reefs and
burrows, mountaintops and ocean deeps once teemed with life and relationships, wet
and dry deserts lie empty, as if uncreated. Human families are displaced by insecurity
and conflict, migrating in search of peace. Animals flee fires, deforestation and famine,
wandering in search of a new place to find a home to lay their young and live.

In this Season of Creation, we pray that the breath of your creative Word would move
our hearts, as in the waters of our birth and baptism. Give us faith to follow Christ to our
just place in the beloved community. Enlighten us with the grace to respond to your
covenant and call to care for our common home. In our tilling and keeping, gladden our
hearts to know that we participate with your Holy Spirit to renew the face of your Earth,
and safeguard a home for all.

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