Season of Creation
“As people of faith, we are called to live in right relationship with creation and not exhaust it.”
LWF Assembly Resolution on Climate Change Read more
In 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I declared 1 September as a day of prayer for the care of creation. In the following years, other Christian World Communions endorsed this initiative, and today many churches in the ecumenical family observe the “Season of Creation” (also known as Creation Time) between 1 September and 4 October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, as observed by some Western traditions.
During the Season of Creation, the LWF has joined our ecumenical family in preparing the 2021 Celebration Guide.
For the Lutheran communion, this liturgical season of prayer and action has become an opportunity to affirm LWF’s commitment to address a central crisis of our time—climate change. Echoing our governing body decisions since 1977, the Twelfth LWF Assembly affirmed “that the global ecological crisis, including climate change is, human-induced. It is a spiritual matter. As people of faith, we are called to live in right relationship with creation and not exhaust it.”
Honoring this commitment, the LWF invites its member churches worldwide to join in the annual “Season of Creation”. This year we will be uniting around the theme, “A home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God.” Oikos is the Greek word for “home,” or “household.” By rooting our theme in the concept of oikos, we celebrate the integral web of relationships that sustain the well-being of the Earth. We hope that this Season of Creation renews our baptismal call to care and sustain this ecological turning so that life may flourish, and all creatures may find their place to flourish in our common home.
The Celebration Guide contains liturgical resources, prayers and meditations, and calls to action and advocacy, and can be used by individuals or congregations, to nurture faithful imagination to restore right, just and sustainable relationships with the Earth and among all species.
Find an ecumenical prayer service, ecologically themed Bible readings, links to eco-theological commentaries and songs, and more in the 2021 Celebration Guide, A Home for All?
The 2021 Celebration Guide was launched by a rich inter-generational dialogue on this year's theme A Home for All? Renewing the oikos of God.
Watch and share the video to energize and mobilize your congregation for prayer and action during the Season of Creation
