Celebrate Creation Time from September 1 to October 4!

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Every year Christians throughout the world celebrate Creation Time from September 1 to October 4.

Eco-Congregation Ireland (ECI) encourages churches in Ireland to join in this celebration of God’s Creation and to consider ways in which they can ‘green’ their churches – through worship, lifestyle, community outreach and contact with the developing world.

Creation Time 2013The theme for Creation Time 2013 is ‘Water Justice’, corresponding with the United Nations’ International Year of Water Cooperation.

There’s no need to be stuck as to how to celebrate Creation Time! Excellent resources are available on the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) website. These sermon notes, service outline and background information on the theme will be helpful in preparing services. A selection of prayers will be added to the website soon.
‘Justice should flow down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream’  ~ Amos 5.24. Today many people live in an environment where water has stopped rolling and the ever flowing streams have dried up and become ‘never flowing’.
In this context of water injustice, the CTBI service for Creation Time 2013 invites us to worship the God of justice with the hope that water justice will flow like a river and eco-righteousness will permeate our hearts and minds like an overflowing stream.
Bible notes are also provided that use Amos 5.24 and John 4.15 as a starting point, as well as pointing to other biblical resources.
The virtual water cube activity demonstrates how much water it takes to produce many of the foods we eat regularly. People could be invited to explore it during a Creation Time service, or it could be used for a separate occasion or used by youth workers and Sunday School teachers.
There’s no need to be stuck as to how to celebrate Creation Time! Excellent resources are available on the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) website. These sermon notes, prayers, service outline and background information on the theme will be helpful in preparing services.

‘Justice should flow down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream’ ~ Amos 5.24. Today many people live in an environment where water has stopped rolling and the ever flowing streams have dried up and become ‘never flowing’.

In this context of water injustice, the CTBI service for Creation Time 2013 invites us to worship the God of justice with the hope that water justice will flow like a river and eco-righteousness will permeate our hearts and minds like an overflowing stream.

Bible notes are also provided that use Amos 5.24 and John 4.15 as a starting point, as well as pointing to other biblical resources.

The virtual water cube activity demonstrates how much water it takes to produce many of the foods we eat regularly. People could be invited to explore it during a Creation Time service, or it could be used for a separate occasion or used by youth workers and Sunday School teachers.

Worship resources with a Creation/environment theme can also be found on our website: follow the link here to click on Section 2 – Celebrating Creation. You will also find helpful resources on the A Rocha website, the European Christian Environmental Network website and the World Council of Churches website.

Creation Time water justiceIf you would like your church to become more eco-friendly but aren’t sure where to start, ECI recommends celebrating Creation Time on at least one Sunday as a good starting point. Also, to include one prayer for the environment in services throughout the year. Another good starting point is to go through our church check-list, which can be found in the first section of Resources. Click here.

How did Creation Time come about? 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 the feast of St Francis on 4 October and this was endorsed by the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, 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”.