This year is the tenth anniversary of the adoption of Creationtide by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. Running from 1st September to St Francis day on 4th October, it is a time when churches and congregations are called to pay special attention to the responsibility of humanity for the Earth and for all that live upon it.
We enjoyed this summer’s hot, dry weather but we know there is a downside – wildfires in many parts of the world, deaths from heatstroke and no doubt we shall soon be paying more for our food as the drought affects crops. In addition to global warming there is the problem of pollution, the indiscriminate use of plastics being the most recently-raised concern.
Although most Christians share the general concern about these environmental crises, Creationtide draws on much deeper roots in Scripture and in older Christian traditions of the relationship between God, humanity and the created order. When I was preparing an all-age service for Creationtide in my last charge, one of the Junior Church leaders said she thought it was “a distraction”. Perhaps she thought the Church should only preach about our relationship with Jesus as our personal saviour. There is plenty in the Bible, however, about our responsibility for the environment. The opening chapters of Genesis show that God finds his creation very good and that he shares the work of caring for it with us humans. Jesus refers to God’s care for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, while Cain’s question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is a clear indication that our personal salvation cannot be divorced from that of our fellow men and women, nor from the well-being (“shalom” is the biblical word) of the whole of creation.
Peter
