Creation Time 2017

Does your church celebrate Creation Time?

What is Creation Time?

Time for Creation from 1^st September to 4^th October (the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi in the Western tradition) is a special period in the liturgical calendars in a growing number of Churches in Europe. In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios suggested that 1 September, the first day of the Orthodox Church’s year, should be observed as a day “of protection of the natural environment”.

Ten years later the European Christian Environmental Network widened this proposal, urging churches to adopt a Time for Creation stretching from 1 September to the feast of St Francis on 4 October.

In this period we remember the gift of Creation and our relation to it. Celebration of this Time and its place in the cycle of Christian prayers and worships was commended by the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu 2007, which recommended that the period “be dedicated to prayer for the protection of Creation and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles that reverse our contribution to climate change”.

ECEN and Creation Time

The ECEN has been instrumental in promoting and encouraging Christians to pray together in spirit of ecumenical cooperation and to promoting action to care for Creation since its inception.

Join us in celebrating by using your own, the ECEN liturgical and other materials, as the Christian world comes together to plead a better, more consious care for Creation. 

Click here to read a press release by ECEN, CEC and CCEE "Time for creation: Time for prayers for the world and environment" (in English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

Message for the Day of Protection for the Environment by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Articles about celebrations of the Creation Time 2017 around the world

• Video: "Celebrating Creationtide", sermon by Rev Dr Tom Atfield, Church of England

• "So weit Himmel und Erde ist", the celebration of the Ecumenical Day of Creation (September 1, 2017) at the Lübeck Cathedral, Germany (in German)

• "Himmelsdüfte im Botanischen Garten von St. Gallen" -event, organised in St. Gallen by the ACK, the German Council of Christian Churches

• 'Urgent' plea to world leaders unites Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Christians around world, ChristianityToday.com

• News about celebrating the Creation Time in Germany (Council of Churches in Germany, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Deutschland)

Find below this year's materials:

• “Journeying with God” (Eco-Congregation Scotland, The Church of Scotland)

• "Himmelsduft und Höllengestank" - SchöpfungsZeit 2017 (Oeku Church and Environment, Switzerland

• "God’s creation – a house of life for all" (Evangelical Church in Central Germany’s LotharKreyssig-Ökumenezentrum at Magdeburg)

• Creato 2017 (Commission on Globalization and Environment of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy)

• "Creation – not for sale" (one of the three sub-themes of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in 2017’s main theme, “Liberated by God’s Grace.” Lutheran World Federation)

• “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (Ecological Conversion week 2017, Churches in Hungary. Material in Hungarian)

You can find additional materials for the Season of Creation on this World Council of Churches webpage.

To access the materials on the Global Ecumenical Season of Creation webpage, click here.

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