On Sunday 6th September at All Saints, Challoch, we kept the “New Feast”, the Festival of Creation in Christ as the start of our keeping of the Season of Creation. It’s been a long while coming through a process of discernment in the Anglican Communion, but of course it is not new to our Eastern Orthodox sisters and brothers. For them it goes back to the 5th Century. If you want to know more about this then visit http://feastofcreation.com.

The preacher was challenged by some great big theological themes springing out of Genesis and John Chapter 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people.”

This puts Jesus, The Word of God, at the very heart and centre of creation. This is echoed by Paul in Colossians 1.16: “For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible.” Christ at the centre of creation – God at the centre of creation. Remember what we say week by week in the Creed, ‘We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” “We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ…through him all things were made.” “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life.” So this is not new to us, but this Festival brings it into sharp relief.

Bishop Anthony Poggo, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion says, “All festivals draw us into the mystery of Christ. In this festival we thank God for the gift of creation and its restoration in Christ. It is not a celebration of Mother Nature. It is not a Harvest Festival. It is about the foundation of the Christian Faith.”

The Season of Creation gives us a focussed time to reflect upon our place within creation as ones coming out of the dust as Genesis 2 tells us. Humanity from the humus. This speaks of our relatedness to all creation. Humankind is not separate from the rest of the created world. We must flourish together with all created things.

As we reflect this will inevitably take us to lament the fact that Creation, the great gift of God’s love has been desecrated by human actions which have contributed to the environmental and ecological crisis which we face. As we lament we must also repent and consider our own behaviour, our own individual actions which contribute to this crisis and which can also contribute to the healing and flourishing of creation.

This is a deeply spiritual endeavour, this is part of being a follower of Jesus, part of discipleship. Part of serving the one who is at the heart of creation, who was at the beginning of creation and the one who generated life itself.

So it is good to stop, good to reflect. Good to sit down as a church and maybe in the vestry to ask questions about behaviours and actions both negative and positive which shape the way we approach environmental issues. How we can tread more lightly within creation through a change in our behaviours both as individuals and as a church community.

There are lots of resources about which can help us.

https://laudatosimovement.org/
https://www.greenanglicans.org/
Diocesan Environmental Group
https://netzerochurch.scot/
https://seasonofcreation.org/

Stuart Bain, Convenor of the Diocesan Environmental Group

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