Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the annual event inviting people to consider care and reverence for the planet which is our earthly home. Of course Earth Day is a secular event, yet each year more and more congregations and denominations take the opportunity to connect the theme of earth care with a conviction that God, the creator, expects us to "tend the garden" to use one image, and to "live with respect in Creation" to use the phrase from our United Church statement of faith.
My commitment as a worship leader to Earth Sunday (usually the Sunday before April 22nd) now stretches back twenty years or so. In the beginning I approached the theme carefully with worship committees and with the congregation. What if people thought this was a form of pantheism? Now I assume that we will observe this day and I use other opportunities during the year to explore what it means to be responsible, awe-filled Christians who care for the Earth. Many evangelical churches embrace creation care now, despite earlier suspicion.
I like the idea floated in Australia of observing a Creation liturgical season to go along with other seasons such as Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter. I have experimented with that in worship in a couple of years.
Does it surprise you that the Earth Day concept is now middle aged?
Do you make the link between your Christian faith and earth care? Do you think the church should raise creation care issues? What about a four or six week season of Creation every year?
God is creative and self-giving,
generously moving
in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.
Our first response to God’s providence is gratitude.
We sing thanksgiving.
Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery,
of living things, diverse and interdependent,
of complex patterns of growth and evolution,
of subatomic particles and cosmic swirls,
we sing of God the Creator,
the Maker and Source of all that is.
Each part of creation reveals unique aspects of God the Creator,
who is both in creation and beyond it.
All parts of creation, animate and inanimate, are related.
All creation is good.
We sing of the Creator,
who made humans to live and move
and have their being in God. Song of Faith UCC
generously moving
in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.
Our first response to God’s providence is gratitude.
We sing thanksgiving.
Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery,
of living things, diverse and interdependent,
of complex patterns of growth and evolution,
of subatomic particles and cosmic swirls,
we sing of God the Creator,
the Maker and Source of all that is.
Each part of creation reveals unique aspects of God the Creator,
who is both in creation and beyond it.
All parts of creation, animate and inanimate, are related.
All creation is good.
We sing of the Creator,
who made humans to live and move
and have their being in God. Song of Faith UCC
5 comments:
I would think that every Sunday(or any other day) should be a creation care day!
I'm hoping to spend some time in the garden tonight with the girls. These times always prove to be the best moments for teaching, and tonight's lesson can be about Earth Day!
Yes, I would love to have a church season of creation on which to focus our attention on the earth. I always tend to include the earth in prayers and we have some beautiful earth imagery in our hymns, especially in our More Voices. The more we talk about the wonder of the earth and care of creation, the better!
I had an "earth day" moment yesterday after helping school kids scrounge the neighbourhood for litter we gathered in the school yard for a little ceremony. They proudly counted the garbage bags they had collected, then regretfully considered the source of that garbage and then this young teacher suggested we sing Happy Birthday to the earth, as we don't often think of the earth in those terms. I found the rendition quite moving....in all our earnestness to improve our care of the earth and the guilt many of us carry, so too we need to stand in awe for a moment and simply connect to the Source (whatever our beliefs) of our home, Mother Earth. The Song of Faith captures it well...to respect and revere. A Creation Season seems a natural fit for living and learning our faith on Earth.
This from reader Bill in an email:
EARTH DAY:I AM STILL IN AWE OF THE BEAUTY OF OUR PLANET AND GET CONCERNED WHEN I SEE IT ABUSED BY OUR CARELESS TREATMENT BY WHAT WE PUT IN THE AIR AND SPREAD ABOUT.I AM NOT THE BEST AT CONSERVATIONBUT I TRY.EARTH DAY DRAWS OUR FOCUS AND ATTENTION TO OUR ENVIRONMENT AND VERY MUCH SHOULD BE PART OF THE CHURCH PROGRAM.OUR YOUNG PEOPLE WILL BE THE BENEFACTORS IN YEARS TO COME.I SOME TIMES FEEL GUILTY ABOUT THE WORLD WE ARE TURNING OVER TO OUR CHILDREN.WE HAVE NOT DONE ENOUGH.I WAS CONCERNED YESTERDAY WHEN I HEARD THAT THERE ARE MORE SMOKKKERS TODAY THAN 5 YEARS AGO.WE ARE NOT ONLY SEEING A HEALTH PROBLEM BUT ALSO MORE POLUTION WITH SMOKE IN THE ATMOSPERE AND BUTS ON THE SIDEWALKS.THIS FROM A LONG AGO SMOKER BUT IT STILL BUGS ME
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