Your Church and the Season of Creation
This year, amid crises that have shaken our world, we’re awakened to the urgent need to heal our relationships with creation and each other. During this year’s Season of Creation, we enter a time of restoration and hope, a jubilee for our Earth, where we hold tight to God’s intention to see the flourishing of the whole of creation.
Your church can participate in the Season of Creation through the support of Common Grace.
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What is the Season of Creation?
Every year, Christians around the world, from across denominations, commit the month of September as a season to celebrate God’s beautiful Earth, and renew our shared commitment to preserving and restoring that beauty. For the liturgical amongst us, this is called the Season of Creation.
During the Season of Creation, we unite as followers of Jesus, celebrating the bonds we share with each other and with “every living creature on Earth.” Together Christians celebrate the season by spending time in prayer, considering ways to inhabit our common home sustainably, and lifting our voices in the public sphere.
Jubilee For The Earth
This year, the theme for the season is “Jubilee for the Earth”.
Jubilee is a time to renounce overconsumption and economic systems based on constant economic growth at the cost of the Earth and those experiencing injustice. Jubilee is a time when those who have consumed the most must make restitution to those who have suffered the most. Jubilee is a time of rest for the land from constant exploitation, to restore ecosystems and peoples.
The concept of Jubilee is rooted in the holy wisdom that there must exist a just and sustainable balance between social, economic and ecological realities. When one variable is exploited to maximize growth of another, the whole system will eventually suffer. When one part of the Earth community is stressed, every part is affected. In 2020, the global pandemic has demonstrated this reality on a global scale. While the experience of living with COVID-19 points back to this need to maintain justice, the lessons that we learn may point us towards the need for a Jubilee and motivate us to restore balance to the very systems that sustain life.
Season of Creation 2020 is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of Jubilee today, especially how we, as individuals and as the Church will recognise our total dependence on God and God’s creation and uphold God’s intention to see the flourishing of the whole of creation.