September 2, 2020
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What is the Season of Creation? Learn more from Earthbeat at: https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/what-season-creation
Opening/Centering Song: Here in this Place
Opening Prayer: General Prayer for Creation
Creator of Life,
At your word, the earth brought forth plants yielding seed and trees of every kind bearing fruit. The rivers, mountains, minerals, seas and forests sustained life. The eyes of all look to you to satisfy the needs of every living thing. And throughout time the earth has sustained life. Through the planetary cycle of days and seasons, renewal and growth, you open your hand to give creatures food in proper time.
In your wisdom, you granted a Sabbath; a blessed time to rest in gratitude for all
that you have given; a time to liberate ourselves from vicious consumption; a time to allow the land and all creatures to rest from the burden of production. But these days our living pushes the planet beyond its limits. Our demands for growth, and our never-ending cycle of production and consumption are exhausting our world. The forests are leached, the topsoil erodes, the fields fail, the deserts advance, the seas acidify, the storms intensify. We have not allowed the land to observe her Sabbath, and the Earth is struggling to be renewed.
During this season of creation, we ask for courage to observe the Sabbath for our planet. Strengthen us with the faith to trust in your providence. Inspire us with the creativity to share what we have been given. Teach us to be satisfied with enough. And as we proclaim a Jubilee for the earth, we will be co-creators with you to renew the face of creation.
Amen.
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| Saratoga Park 2020 - photo by MT Streck |
Reading: Encourage sustainable living
The Season of Creation is a wonderful time to reflect on how our lifestyles affect the environment and to make a commitment to more sustainable ways of living. The good news is that making more sustainable lifestyle choices in just a few areas adds up to a big difference overall.
Here are some sustainable life choices:
Diet : promote sustainable consumption by a) lessening red meat consumption, b) buying ecological and fair-trade foods from local producers, c) reducing food waste, d) avoiding disposable (single-use) articles e) promoting reusable food packaging and items (no plastics and tins for daily diet)
Transportation: Promote climate-friendly mobility by supporting climate-friendly and post-fossil mobility. Depending on your context: post timetables for public transport, use bicycles and sharing, installing one of the many carpooling or car-sharing systems, installing charging points for electrical cars – or – over all: reduce the need for mobility by regionalizing daily-life economy!
Energy: Monitor our energy consumption at least once a year and strive for a complete change to renewable energy. The consumption of fossil-fuel based energy harms the climate.
Materials: Engage materials use consciously. Every time we purchase something, we pay for its raw materials, production costs and disposal as waste after use. The acquisition of raw materials is often very harmful to people and the environment. Small changes like duplex printing on recycled paper or avoiding buying new mobile phones, computers, laptops every one or two years can help the Earth restore. Think about a “Jubilee for the Earth” before buying.
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| photo by MT Streck |
Prayers for Creation:
With open hearts and spirits and with respect for all humanity, we pray that we may learn to care not only for our brothers and sisters, but for all of creation revealed in the wonder of nature that maintains our common life.
Response: Inspire us to love the whole of creation.
We remember especially the victims of natural disasters caused by our own greed and negligence. May we learn to live simply, reduce our carbon footprint, and respond to those in need of our help.
Response: Inspire us to love the whole of creation.
Inspire our religious leaders to be an example of your Christ, who revered and cared for the fullness of your creation.
Response: Inspire us to love the whole of creation.
Inspire all civil authorities to dedicate their resources and efforts to the building of a better world for all your people. May they govern with respect and balance toward nature through policies that seek to relieve the environmental calamity that surrounds us.
Response: Inspire us to love the whole of creation.
We offer these prayers as a sign of our immense gratitude for the many blessings you have given us, and above all for the life in nature that continues to flourish despite our carelessness. May we return your love in acts of charity and compassion toward the world that you created and all of its creatures.
Amen.
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| photo by MT Streck |
Closing Prayer: Our Father, Holy Mother by Jan Phillips
Our Father, Holy Mother,
Creator of the Cosmos, Source of Life,
You are in my mind, in my garden,
In my cup of wine and loaf of bread.
Blessed be your name:
Mother, Allah, Goddess, Beloved, Great Spirit,
Radiant One, Yahweh, HaShem, Sophia
Your presence has come, your will be done
On earth as it is in the cosmos.
May we give each other strength, mercy,
Tenderness, and joy
And forgive each other’s failures,
Silence, pettiness, and forgetfulness
As we ask to be forgiven
By those we’ve hurt.
Lead us home to ourselves and each other,
To clarity, to oneness
And deliver us from the darkness
Of our ignorance and fear.
So we pray and so we receive, Amen.
Song: Lost Words Blessing
Resources for further action: Join the Order of the Sacred Earth
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood - as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter - the planet doesn't need another church or religion.
What it needs is a new Order:...a sacred community and movement:
...A movement of communities welcoming all the peoples of Earth: our varied belief systems (or non-belief systems), genders, races, classes, abilities, and nations.
...A deeply spiritual movement, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, in leading-edge science and indigenous tradition.
Therefore, an Order of the Sacred Earth.
...A movement of communities welcoming all the peoples of Earth: our varied belief systems (or non-belief systems), genders, races, classes, abilities, and nations.
...A deeply spiritual movement, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, in leading-edge science and indigenous tradition.
Therefore, an Order of the Sacred Earth.
Not a new religion; or a new church; but a new Order.
A radically inclusive Order of mystic activists,
uniting our energy and intention in one sacred vow:
uniting our energy and intention in one sacred vow:
“I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
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