The Season of Creation, 2021 – a summary
Oct. 3 is the 5th and last Sunday in the Season of Creation and it has been busy one for us as well as productive.
1 This year’s symbol, Abraham’s tent, signifies our commitment to safeguard a place for all who share our common home, just as Abraham did in the Book of Genesis. Abraham and Sarah opened their tent as a home for three strangers, who turned out to be God’s angels (Gen 18). By creating a home for all, their act of radical hospitality became a source of great blessing.
Abraham’s tent is a symbol of our ecumenical call to practice creation care as an act of radical hospitality, safeguarding a place for all creatures, human and more human, in our common home, the household (oikos) of God
By faith, we join the Psalmist in remembering that we are not stewards of an inanimate creation, but caretakers within a dynamic and living community of creation. In Christ, God calls us to participate in renewing the whole inhabited Earth, safeguarding a place for every creature, and reform just relationships among all creation.
2 People were invited to bring their composting to the church during the season. In particular Catherine talked about the benefits of composting. We reviewed composting and other steps taken for the Season of Creation at the church.
3. There was a land acknowledgement at the beginning of the service that our church sits on land originally belonging to indigenous people – To pay tribute to those who came before us, our services now open with an acknowledgement of the Nandtaughtacund people, and the Rappahannock Tribe
4. We provided Goodside’s M.O.R.E. Model for Effective Climate Action, a chapter each Sunday online.
M.O.R.E is an acronym for measure, offset, reduce and educate. Our goal with this book is to arm you with the know-how to easily adopt lifestyle changes, habits and actions that will aid in your efforts against the climate crisis”.
Book is free and online -https://www.joingoodside.com/guides/more-climate-action
5. We held a “Tea and Native Plant sale”, Sept 29 and made $400 for our tree fund which cares for trees at the church
6. Many uses of the Season in hymns, the sermon, Prayers of the People
The sermon on Sept 19 introduced the congregation to American burnweed, which is so efficient at absorbing nitrogen dioxide. And these weeds are helping to anchor the soil so that it doesn’t wash into the watershed. The Eucharistic Prayer was “We Give Thanks” – “You brought forth all of creation and filled it with life, from the shining stars at the farthest reaches of the universe, to the abundance of the earth itself; its dark rich sustaining and life giving soil replenished by rain, and the springs and creeks, streams and rivers that water the earth. You made us in your image to dwell within your miraculous creation, but we wandered away from your endless gifts of abundance into the dry and dusty waste lands of our own making.