Season of Creation 2022: Listen to the Voice of Creation
From 1 September – the World Day of Prayer for Creation – to 4 October – the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Marist Family around the world joins in the annual ecumenical celebration “Season of Creation”. It invites us to celebrate the beauty and pain of our world, praise and thank God for his love and goodness, and take steps to defend our common home, especially in this time of ecological emergency.
Season of Creation is a Christian celebration of prayer and action for our common home, facilitated by the World Council of Churches, the Global Catholic Climate Movement, ACT Alliance, World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, A Rocha, the Lutheran World Federation, Christian Aid, Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network, European Christian Environmental Network.
Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si’, challenge us “to provide an approach to ecology which respects our unique place as human beings in this world and our relationship to our surroundings” (Laudato Si’). Along the same lines, the XXII General Chapter of the Marist Brothers invite us to “awaken in ourselves and those around us an ecological awareness that engages us in caring for “our common home”.
Each year, the ecumenical steering committee that provides this Season of Creation Celebration Guide suggests a theme. The 202e theme is Listen to the Voice of Creation. You can download here the Season of Creation 2022 Guide.
A Time for Creation
September 1st was proclaimed as a day of prayer for the environment by the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989. The Orthodox church year starts that day with a commemoration of how God created the world. On 4 October, Roman Catholics and other churches from the Western traditions commemorate Francis of Assisi, known to many as the author of the Canticle of the Creatures.
The proposal to celebrate a “Time for Creation” during these five weeks was made by the Third European Ecumenical Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Sibiu in 2007. The following year, the WCC Central Committee invited churches to observe “Time for Creation” through prayers and actions. In 2015, Pope Francis has designated September 1st as a World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation for the worldwide Roman Catholic Church as well.
Throughout the years, major Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican organizations have joined to encourage the 2.2 billion Christians worldwide to pray and act on ecological issues.
In 2016, Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I released their special messages for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, kicking off the month-long Season of Creation celebrations. Both leaders used strong language to stress the urgency of the ecological crisis and the need to take action on climate change. Their special messages are available here.
