Season of Creation
(1 September - 4 October)
Editor: Since 1999 the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN) has urged churches to adopt a time for Creation from 1 September to the feast of St Francis on 4 October. Last year, Pope Francis designated 1 September as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in the Catholic Church, encouraging all members of the Catholic community to 'rediscover in our own rich spiritual patrimony the deepest motivations for our concern for the care of creation'.
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Image: © MIA 2016. This image is available to any one or any group who would like to use it. Contact Anne to obtain a large size, high res version.
Pope Francis said he was instituting the prayer day for Catholics because he shares the concern of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who initiated the 1 September prayer day for the Orthodox Church in 1989 and the Christian community 'must respond respond together, in order to be more credible and effective'.
Resources already available:
MIA: MIRP VOICES 14 videos provide an inspiring range of insights to assist all who seek a better understanding of the action of God in our world today, particularly in the light of the challenge to respond to ‘The Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor’.
World Council of Churches: Time for Creation. Links to resources on many other sites in both English and Spanish. A good place to start your search
CAFOD: World Day Of Prayer for Care of Creation
Eco-Congregation Scotland: Creation Time materials
The Columban Mission Institute’s Centre for Peace, Ecology and Justice (PEJ):
Catholic Season of Creation online resource for the Sundays in September 2016 (Year C)
Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy New Zealand leaflet of suggested actions (PDF)
Websites:
Season of Creation from Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM)
Season of Creation from Uniting Church Australia
As further resources become available, we will add them to this page and publicise the update in Mercy eNews
Invitation: Season of Creation Photographic Meditation
For each of the 34 days of the Season of Creation we plan to offer a daily visual meditation—a photograph of an aspect of the beauty of our world —on the homepage of our mercyworld.org website.
We invite our readers and members of the wider Mercy network who are keen photographers to send in an image you have taken with your SLR or smartphone camera to be shared in this way.
Requirements are simple. Images need to be landscape in shape, to be focussed and clear and to be uncompressed (ie taken at a large size and at least 1mb). JPEGS are preferred.
Please provide a caption identifying the location as this, along with your name, will accompany the photo.
Photos can be sent in at any time from 17 August. Send images to Anne Walsh.
Invitation: Prayer for the Earth During the Season of Creation
During the Season of Creation we are invited to use the prayer for the Earth as part of our prayer each day. The Season of Creation offers us all an opportunity to renew our focus on using this prayer which is the prayer we have adopted for the Year of Mercy.
A sheet with the prayer, using the graphic accompanying this item and suitable for posting on noticeboards etc, will be made available through Mercy eNews.
Messages to: Anne Walsh - Director MIRP Communications
