The Season of Creation

Christians worldwide celebrate the Season of Creation (September 1st through October 4th) as a time for renewing, repairing, and restoring our relationship to God, one another, and all creation. The Episcopal Church joins this international effort for prayer and action for climate justice and an end to ecological destruction.  

What is climate justice? It’s the concept that those who have had the least impact on climate change often suffer the most from its consequences, highlighting the need for systemic change and social justice.  Our hope: Creation will find peace when justice is restored. To hope in a Biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but to act, pray, change, and reconcile with Creation and the Creator in unity, repentance, and solidarity. 

This year’s Creation Season theme, "Living Water,” explores Ezekiel 47:9,12 as a powerful biblical vision of hope and ecological healing.  Set amid exile and loss, the image of living water flowing from God’s sanctuary reveals divine healing that renews land, water, biodiversity, and human responsibility towards the whole creation.

The symbol pictures water flowing from the Temple of God — a tiny stream which grows deeper and deeper, bringing life to dead areas and restoring fertility to damaged or barren ecosystems.  Through living water comes healing, but to receive new life we must step into the water and also become part of God’s river of life, taking part in the healing of creation.

Each week, in our publications, we’ll offer a brief creation-focused reading to consider. And in our 10am Sunday Eucharist, we’ll offer special creation-focused prayers and music. May you experience and care for the wonders of “our fragile island home” during this Season of Creation. 

Season of Creation Happenings - Mark your Calendars!

Friday, Sept. 11, 8pm - Night Prayer in the Season of Creation via Zoom from the New Zealand Prayer Book.

Night Prayer derives its content from the wisdom of the centuries in Scripture and above all in the psalms, but also from contemporary Christian experience of God.  The lovely language in the New Zealand Prayer Book is already rich with Earth themes, appropriate for the Season of Creation.  Following a summer of record-breaking heat and wildfires, storms and floods, and inequities suffered by vulnerable communities, the Season of Creation is our opportunity to remember that our wellbeing is interwoven with the planet’s wellbeing, to give thanks for God’s astounding creation, and to ask for forgiveness, guidance, and strength in caring for our common home.  

Sunday, Sept. 20 - 11:30am - Outreach and Creation Care Meeting.

Join us to plan and learn about how we will be serving and supporting those in need in the coming months.

Saturday, Sept. 26, 9am-2pm - Electronics Recycling Event in the parking lot.

Rain or shine, bring your unwanted electronics (and more) for recycling for free or minimal cost by Green Day Recycling.  Proceeds support our Outreach & Creation Care ministries. See recycling and cost details in our weekly eCourier newsletter.

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 6:30pm - Potluck and Presentation by Erin Bonney Casey, Executive Director of the Ipswich River Watershed Association on the “State of the Watershed”.

Join us for a Potluck and Presentation on the State of the Ipswich River.  For our presentation, we will welcome Erin Bonney Casey, Executive Director of the Ipswich River Watershed Association (IRWA), who will discuss the challenges to, and importance of, the Ipswich River to Lynnfield – especially those served by the Lynnfield Center Water District.  The River supplies municipal water for 13 other nearby towns as well, including Peabody, Reading, North Reading, Middleton, etc. Here’s your opportunity to learn about the sources of our drinking water, what threatens it (the river has run dry several times in the past), what that means for those who depend on it, and the importance of keeping River stewardship alive and well in Lynnfield.

Sunday, Oct. 4, noon - Blessing of the Animals, in the parking lot.

Always a wild and delightful time, Fr. Rob will bless the assorted animals, some who come in person (er, animal), and some who come on photos or cell phones.