Worship Resources for Season of Creation 2022 

Listen to the Voice of Creation

The themes and texts in this resource were selected by United Methodists, who were inspired by the seasonal guidance found at http://seasonofcreation.org. The gospel readings and the psalms for each week are based on the Year C lectionary. The readings from Exodus were chosen to pair with the gospel readings and to build on the season’s theme, Listen to the Voice of Creation, and the season’s central image of the burning bush. The http://seasonofcreation.org celebration guide is the result of an ecumenical steering committee that has grown under the leadership of the Catholic Laudato Si Movement (previously known as the Global Catholic Climate Movement) with support from the World Council of Churches. These texts and themes are distinct from the texts and themes found in the resources developed by the Uniting Church in Australia, available at http://seasonofcreation.com or through Seasons of the Spirit.

Week 1: September 4
Theme: Listen to Prepare

ScriptureReadings:

Exodus 3:1-15 and Luke 14:25-33
Burning Bush: What you have is not what will save you.

 

Hymns: 

UMH* 448 “Go Down, Moses”
FWS** 2164 “Lord, Prepare Me” (OL***)
FWS 2272 “Holy Ground” (OL)
FWS 2237 “As a Fire Is Meant for Burning” (OL)

* The United Methodist Hymnal
** The Faith We Sing
*** One License

 

Notes:

Outdoor worship, Possible extra reading: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh: Book VII, lines 795–826

 

Opening Prayer

O God of the Heavens and Earth, 

We see your majesty in the heights of mountain ranges and your glory in the depths of the oceans. We recognize your presence in the tiniest of creatures and the greatest of beasts, the simplest sprouts and the most complex cycles of nature. In this hour, move in us that we might know our connection to all that you have created. In this act of worship, draw us ever closer to you by opening our ears to listen to your voice throughout creation. Amen. 

 

Call to Worship

God, you come to us in the burning bush.

Help us listen to the voice of creation as we prepare. 

You come to us, bidding us to begin something new.

Help us listen to the voice of creation as we prepare.

You come and invite us to participate in what you are creating. 

Help us listen to the voice of creation as we prepare.

Your voice echoes through the voices of all creation.

Help us listen. Let us prepare. Amen.

 

Pastoral Prayer 

Inspired by and Drawn From Psalm 1

God of orchards that rise with blossoms in Spring! God of summer where the faithful read Scripture under green, leafy canopies. God of autumn soils renewed by the mulch of falling leaves. God of all creation! 

By your glory, Lord, every tree rose up! Yet we have listened to the wicked. We saw your good road, yet stood to the side while the forests were destroyed. We knew your path, but closed our windows when the soils were scraped bare, dried up and turned to dust. 

Hear our call for restoration. Let us renew our lives, our communities, our health, and this good planet.

(Option to break here to lift the prayers of the people from the local church)

Holy God of all creation! You who make the sapling rise and the water flow! Thank you for this good ground. Let us be the hands of the righteous to nourish the soil. Let us be like a tree replanted by streams of water, which bears fruit at just the right time and whose leaves don’t fade. For you are God, in whom all things are made.

(Optional: Lord’s Prayer) Let us pray together with the prayer you taught us to pray, Our Father, who is in heaven …

 

Time with Young Disciples (or Young at Heart)

Requires: a conch shell

For the next few weeks, I’ll be bringing you items to listen to. Have you listened to the inside of a shell? (Pass around the shell, if appropriate.) What does it sound like? Some people say it sounds like the ocean waves. Other people think it sounds like wind or breath. It’s fun to listen to, anyway, right? Throughout the next few weeks, we’ll be listening for the ways that ordinary objects that are part of the natural world are telling us what they need and how we can live in harmony with them. Can you hear the shell saying anything about that? We’ll keep listening! 

Prayer: God of wonders, help us to keep listening for your voice speaking through your world. Amen. 

 

Service of Holy Communion: The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.*

It is right and a good and joyful thing to give thanks to you, O God of justice and peace. 

You created the darkness and the light. You created the sun, moon, and stars. You created the oceans, the icebergs, the glaciers, and the streams. You created the continents and the islands and the volcanoes. You created the algae, the plants, and the trees. You created the two-legged and four-legged, the winged and the hooved, those who fly and those who slither. You created your people with our many languages, cultures, and races. You set them all in motion and you blessed them.

Now, we join our voices with all of your creation, and with the great choir of saints who have come before us, and we praise you with their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes to the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.*

You are holy, Creating God, who has given us every good gift through the abundance of your earth. You provided for your people and for all your creatures through the eons, but we grew tired of your ways. We turned from you and in our greed, we ceased to know your abundance. We learned to see only scarcity and thus brought about destruction for the good gifts that you had given, and the lives that depended on them. 

You spoke through the voice of creation time and again to remind us of your ways. Your voice came from the burning bush, through the rushing wind, and in the quiet stillness. And we needed more reminders.

To show us again the ways you intended for us, you sent your son, Jesus. He walked with his followers and showed them a better way. He reminded them that you have provided abundantly for all of time. In the final hours before his death, when he was with his disciples, he reminded them again, sitting at the table with them. He began by taking the bread, giving thanks to you, breaking it and sharing it with them, plenty for everyone. 

 He said, Take and eat, this is my body, a gift that has been broken and given for you. 

(Hold up the bread and break it.)

Remember how his actions connected his life to the abundance of the grain of the field.

When the supper was over, he poured a cup of wine. He gave thanks to you and shared it with his disciples as well, again, plenty for everyone. He said, 

Drink from my cup, each of you;
this is the cup of God’s eternal covenant,
poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

(Hold up the cup.)

Remember how his table fellowship connected his promise to the promise of abundance from the grapes of the vine.

As we prepare to share together today in these gifts again, we declare the mystery of faith.

“Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”*

(Hold out hands over bread and juice.)

Pour out your Spirit on these gifts of bread and juice, these elements of the grain and grape of the earth. Make them be for us the body of Christ, that we might become his body, for the world. Make them be for us the abundance of Christ, that we might become his abundance, for the world. Make them be for us the gift of Christ, that we might be his gifts for the world. Amen.

 

Prayer After Receiving:

We praise you, O God of abundance, for these gifts which we take into our bodies so that we may be made new. May coming to your table of abundance change us. Help us to change the way we dream, the ways we interact, what we take and what we leave. Heal us and through us, bring healing to your hurting world. Amen.

* From “Word and Table” service options, The United Methodist Hymnal.

Week 2: September 11
Theme: Listen for Justice

Scripture Readings:

Exodus 5:1-9 and Luke 15:1-10
Bricks With No Straw: Asking the Earth to produce but without attention/care/love/stewardship

 

Hymns:

UMH 116 “The God of Abraham Praise”
FWS 2182 “When God Restored Our Common Life” v. 3 only (OL)
UMH 568 “Christ for the World We Sing”

 

Opening Prayer

Just and Merciful God, 

Bless us this day through word, music, stillness, and ritual. Bless us and all those who gather this day throughout the world to worship you. Bind us with your love and grace to your people everywhere and to your beyond-human creatures and to the very stuff of the Earth. In our worship, meet us. In our song, sing through us. In our silence, stir within us. This we pray in the name of the one you sent to walk the earth like we do and yet who also shows us the way to you, your Son, Jesus. Amen. 

 

Call to Worship

The trees have been removed for paper or agriculture, yet we still need the oxygen they produce.

Help us listen to those crying out for justice.

The animals have lost their habitats to development and pollution, yet still we wish for their beauty. 

Help us listen to those crying out for justice.

The forests and savannas, the alpine meadows and the shaded valleys are all growing warmer and drier, yet still we build without consideration for what was there before. 

Help us listen to those crying out for justice.

The waters hold vigil as corals, salmon, orca, and other species continue to decline in population.

Help us listen and be moved toward justice. Amen.

 

Pastoral Prayer 

Inspired by and Drawn From Psalm 14

Creator God, who drew land from the waters, shaping it with plant and wildlife. God of blue blossoms, red beetles, orange salamanders, each a testimony to life by the hand of the Creator. Even the bunch grasses are a cathedral of life. 

Forgive us, Lord! We who have become the devourers. We who have uprooted the cathedrals and poisoned the beetles. We took too much. We laid waste to God’s own sanctuary. Even the salamander finds no refuge. We are in a panic! Restore our sanctuaries. Lead us to sustainability, to health, home, and life in you. 

(Option to break here to lift the prayers of the people from the local church)

Almighty God, we have lost our way. Teach us to hear your Word. Change us for the better. We pledge to return your sanctuary again to a green and growing refuge. For yours are the forests, the wetlands, and the prairie grasses. The thriving earth is a testament to your love for us and our love for you. Amen.

(Optional: Lord’s Prayer.) We lift our voices with the words taught to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ, Our Father, who is in heaven …

 

Time with Young Disciples (or Young-at Heart)

Requires: Straw, wheat, tall grass, reeds, or other local plant that can make a “swishing” sound

I’ve brought something else that makes noise for us to listen to today. (Demonstrate swishing with various items.) Can you hear this one? What does it sound like? Imagine being in a field (or other area where the plant you have grows) where you can see this type of plant growing around you in all directions. What would it sound like if the wind started to blow and all the plants were making this sound? Sometimes the sounds we hear from God’s world are soft (make soft swishes) and sometimes they are loud (make loud swishes). What do you think the plants would tell us if they could speak the same language we do? Maybe they would tell us about the way they use our breath to grow taller or how they put oxygen back into the air so we can breathe. Let’s keep listening for their voices so we understand even better how we need them and they need us. 

Prayer: Dear God, remind us when we forget that we are part of the natural world and that we need it just as it needs us. Amen.

Week 3: September 18
Theme: Listen and Learn

 

Scripture Readings: 

Exodus 12:30-41 and Luke 16:1-13
Departed With Unleavened Bread: The gifts we are given from creation (ecosystem services) and how they don’t always translate into common values

 

Hymns: 

UMH 127 “Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah”
UMH 130 “God Will Take Care of You,” refrain only, sung twice
FWS 2246 “Deep in the Shadows of the Past” (OL)

 

Opening Prayer

O Great Teacher and Redeemer,

 Some days we think we know it all. Other days we are confronted with the reality that there is much still to learn. As we gather this day, we pray that you would make us aware of your loving presence among us, seeking to teach us your ways. In the sound of the rustle of tree tops or the stir of a breeze through this space, help us know you are with us, leading us. We are here to worship, to learn, to forgive and be forgiven, to be made new. We lift our voices to you in praise for the lessons we will learn. Amen.

 

Call to Worship

This day may our minds be opened to you, O God.

Help us listen and learn the lessons that creation teaches.

This day, may we approach with humility that which is beyond our experience. 

Help us listen and learn the lessons that creation teaches.

This day, may our hearts be stirred by the grace of the One who created and is creating. 

Help us listen and learn the lessons that creation teaches.

This day, may our actions reflect the wisdom that we hear spoken, sung, chirped, whispered, and hummed by your creatures, O God. 

Help us listen and learn the lessons that creation teaches so our ways, our actions, and our patterns may be transformed.

 

Pastoral Prayer 

Inspired by and Drawn From Psalm 113

God whose name is praised from sunrise to sunset! God of the highest orders, of stars, of ozone, of mountains, of pouring rain. You are praised in heaven as on earth.

Forgive us, Lord. We have treated your creation and each other like dung. We were never satisfied. We piled up dunghills of plastic and consumer garbage. And as it piled up, we left the needy to pick through it.  

Lord of the nations! Your name is blessed forever! Hear our cry, teach us to listen to you, the earth, and to each other. Hear our prayer!

(Option to break here to lift the prayers of the people from the local church)

God of hope, we repent of our waste. The table you have set is filled with plenty. We sit together at your table, there is enough to share. You bless us with a future, with nestlings, new green shoots, spring fawns, and autumn apples. We rejoice in the future of our children. Amen.

(Optional: Lord’s Prayer) We pray together your enduring prayer, Our Father, who is in heaven…

 

Time with Young Disciples (or Young at Heart)

Requires: Acorn “tops” (ideally enough for each participant)

This week, I’ve brought something that you might not be able to hear at first. These are the tops of acorns. Acorns are the seeds that grow tall oak trees. These tops don’t make much sound when they are just sitting there. However, I want to teach you how to make them make a sound. Before I do that though, I want you to promise me that you will think about when you use them to make this noise because it can be kind of loud for some people. It’s not a good idea to take your acorn top home and use it to make this noise when someone is trying to take a nap, OK? All right, are you ready? I’ll show you first, and then I’ll give you the step-by-step of how to do it. 

(Demonstrate blowing through the acorn top to produce a shrill whistle noise. If you haven’t done it before, see How to Whistle an Acorn Cap – SciencetoyMaker.)  

This time, the noise is pretty loud, right? What do you think the acorn tops are saying to us? I think there are some pretty loud messages we can hear if we listen to the voices of God’s world. Maybe some would tell us about the trees that grew these acorns and how we can learn to grow them, as well. Maybe some would tell us about how our actions are affecting the forests where they grow or the water that they need to grow. Let’s keep listening! 

 Prayer: God of the tallest trees and the tiniest acorns, give us ears to hear the lessons your world is teaching us. Amen. 

Week 4: September 25
Theme: Listen for Leadership

 

Scripture Readings: 

Exodus 14:19-29 and Luke 16:19-31
Crossing the Reedy Sea: Following God is what will save you.

 

Hymns:

FWS 2165 “Cry of My Heart” (OL)
UMH 315 “Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain” v. 1 only
FWS 2234 “Lead on O Cloud of Presence” (OL)

 

Opening Prayer

Creative, Generative Spirit, 

 We depend on your goodness. We wander in the wilderness of our routines. We wonder where you might be leading us. Yet we remain your people and we listen for your voice. Speak to us in this time and place that we might know your presence among us, your direction within us, and your grace before us. Bless us with your guidance, we pray. Amen. 

 

Call to Worship

Listen, can you hear Moses calling?

Lead us through unlikely places. 

Listen, can you hear Abraham calling? 

Lead us in new ways. 

Listen, can you hear Jesus calling?

Lead us in the way of truth and light. 

Listen, can you hear creation calling?

Lead us to right-relationship with all those who share this Earth. 

 

Pastoral Prayer 

Inspired by and Drawn From Psalm 91

Loving God, protector of the vulnerable. Almighty God, maker of shelter and shield. Protector of the migrant, the refugee, the hungry and the poor. See the plight we have brought to the earth! Look to the millions displaced by drought, by famine, by fire, by flood, by hurricanes, by war.

Creator God, where are our leaders? Who will call for justice? For righteousness? For creation! Almighty God, for ourselves, for our homes, and for our loved ones, hear us pray!

(Option to break here to lift the prayers of the people from the local church)

The Lord says, “Whenever you cry out to me, I will answer.” The Lord is a refuge as soft as the feathers of a mother bird in her nest. Lord, you gather us. Your wings shelter us. Your strength carries us over the storms and droughts. You rescue us from harm. Your angels lift us from disaster! Show us your salvation! Amen.

(Optional: Lord’s Prayer) Let us pray the Lord’s Prayer in one voice, Our Father, who is in heaven…

 

Time with Young Disciples (or Young at Heart)

Required: Bowl, cup, turkey baster, eye dropper, spoon, and pitcher of water with an open top

Today, we are listening to some water. When have you heard water? (For example, think about gentle rain or a hard storm, bathtub filling, shower, splashing or jumping into a swimming pool or lake, a river or stream flowing, pot or teakettle boiling, ice cube tray emptying, the waves at the ocean.) What kind of voice does water have? (Demonstrate and/or enlist volunteers to help pour, squirt, splash, or drink the water so you can hear it.) What is the water telling us? Sometimes water can tell us about where it’s been. Did you know that water that flows through rocks can sometimes dissolve a little of the rock and carry it along? Sometimes water that flows through city pipes gets treated with fluoride to make people’s teeth strong. So water is able to carry messages by dissolving things. It can also carry whole boats and animals too, as they move to new places in lakes or oceans. As we listen to the voice of water, we can sometimes hear it tell us about the need to get out of its way if a storm were coming, or we can sometimes hear the voice of water telling us something else is changing as when an iceberg of frozen water breaks off from a glacier with a big crack. Water has a lot to say about when changes happen. Water can change from solid to liquid and also liquid to gas, or the other way too, from gas to liquid to solid. It can move around rocks and even move the rocks sometimes. Did you notice when we were pouring the water before that sometimes the water would move in a skinny stream and sometimes it got flat when it poured? So many ways that water can change and yet it still stays water. We can still drink it and listen to it. Even after all that change, it’s still the same in important ways too. Let’s make sure we keep listening to the water!

 Prayer: Ever-present God, who is with us through every change, help us to listen to the water as it moves, as it changes, and as it sustains life. Amen.

Week 5: October 2
Theme: Listen and Be Filled

 

Scripture Readings: 

Exodus 16:9-16 and Luke 17:5-10
Quail and Manna: Obedience and reward (or lack of obvious reward)

 

Hymns

FWS 2236 “Gather Us In” (OL)
FWS 2171 “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” (OL)
FWS 2126 “All Who Hunger” (OL)

 

Notes: 

Blessing of the Animals, St. Francis Day, World Communion Sunday

 

Opening Prayer 

Great Creator, 

You formed us from the dust of the earth
And created a world that could sustain our needs:
With nourishing food
Astounding beauty
Cleansing water
Fresh air
And companions in creatures and all living things.

And yet, God, we’re prone to grumble—
About bruised bananas
Misshapen tomatoes
Dented apples.

We grumble 
When we’re worried things won’t be just right
Or when we’re scared there won’t be enough.
We grumble, and we grasp for more.

God, 
Give us trust in your grace and abundance. 
Give us faith the size of a mustard seed.
Divert our attention from our greed to the world’s need.
Reshape our grumbles into great cries for justice, for healing, for hope
For all God’s people, and for all living things struggling to survive
On depleted land, in polluted waters, amid drought and flood and disaster.

Make our duty match our passions.
Transform us into the stewards you created us to be:
Gardeners, 
Justice seekers, and 
Lovers of your creation.

Amen. 

 

Call to Worship 

Lord of craggy mountains and water-carved canyons,
Your creativity and power rise all around us.
Yet O Lord, we ask:

Increase our faith!

 Your unending grace shines through the warm sun, and cleansing rains,
Nourishing all of creation.
Yet O Lord, we ask:

Increase our faith!

 We know your loyalty and love through your created companionship
With dogs, cats, birds, gerbils and pets that bring joy.
Yet O Lord, we ask:

Increase our faith!

 The food that sustains us, the homes that shelter us, the people who nurture us
Are all evidence of your deep love for us.
Yet O Lord, we ask:

Increase our faith!
Give us wisdom to recognize the mustard seed faith you have planted in us
That we may harness our gifts to become co-creators of justice, sustainability, and peace.

 

Pastoral Prayer 

Inspired by and Drawn From Psalm 37

Creator God, our Lord who loves justice and lifts the righteous. Enduring God, who fills the heart with wisdom, and calls the faithful to the land. 

We confess, Lord, our envy, our jealousy of those who cultivate influence, who wear fine clothes and flaunt their wealth. Yet we also know that wickedness cannot endure. It will burn out in a season. It will lay waste to itself by its own excess. Creator God, you call us for more than just a single season, more than just one harvest, you love more than a single generation. For as you say, “Turn away from evil! Do good! Then you will live in the land forever.” 

(Option to break here to lift the prayers of the people from the local church) Let us do good! Let us raise our prayers for one another…

Hear these words, hope is in the Lord. The Creation is filled with growing things. The gentle will inherit the earth. The steadfast will farm abundance. The future belongs to people of peace. 

(Optional: Lord’s Prayer) In faithfulness, we pray the prayer you taught us, Our Father, who is in heaven…

 

Time with Young Disciples (or Young at Heart)

Required: A live pet or a stuffed animal that makes noise when you squeeze it or toss it 

This is my dog (or whatever animal). Can you hear him/her/it? What noises do you think s/he/it can make? Let’s all be really quiet and see if we can hear any sounds it/she/he is making. (If it’s alive, listen for it breathing or making scratching noises or anything like that; if it’s stuffed, in the quiet, squeeze it or otherwise make it make a noise). Some people train their pets to make noises. Did you know that? If they tell their pet to speak, it/he/she will answer. What would our pets tell us? Maybe that they are hungry or that they want us to pet them or give them a drink of water. What would the animals that are living in wild places tell us? Probably not that we should pet them. They might tell us about things they’ve seen. Maybe if they fly, they could tell us what it looks like from above; or maybe if they hibernate, they could tell us about what it’s like to be so sleepy. Some animals might tell us about struggles they have had, for example, if they saw a fire and had to run away or if they have gotten separated from their family. Since we can’t hear their stories in our language, it’s important that we listen in other ways so we understand how their lives are part of the whole world and how they affect us and we affect them. How else can we listen? We can listen to people who study them and teach us about them. We can listen to what the Bible teaches us about God’s love for all creatures. Good ideas. Let’s make sure we are listening!

 Prayer: God who speaks in our hearts, we give you thanks and praise for all the voices of creation. Amen. 

 

Service of Holy Communion: The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you

And also with you. 

Lift up your hearts. 

We lift them up to the Lord. 

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.* 

 

It is right and a good and joyful thing to give thanks to God, who fills us and loves us. 

 

O God, you have provided for your people with manna and quail, fresh water and land. You have called forth life from the seed to nourish our bodies and faith from stories of improbable goodness to sustain our souls. Even when we lacked the imagination and strength to draw close to you, you called out to us through all the voices of creation to show us the way forward. You claim us as your people, through all our faults and in spite of all the ways we fall short of your hopes for us. We live in gratitude for your forgiveness and mercy. 

 

“With all your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn. 

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes to the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.”*

 

You invite us to listen. Listen to the voices of the water and the soil. Listen to the voices of the sky and the rain. Listen to the voices of the swimmers and the creepers. Listen to the voice crying out in the wilderness. Listen. 

 

When we weren’t able to hear their voices, you sent the voice of one we might recognize, your son. He came in human form as Jesus of Nazareth and reminded us that when we listen, we can be filled. 

 

Even on the day before he died, he gathered with his friends in love. 

 

At the table, he took bread (hold up bread),

gave thanks for it, 

broke it  (break bread),

and gave it to those who had gathered. 

 

He said, Take, eat. This bread is the bread of life, for you. 

Do this whenever you gather, in remembrance of me and be filled. 

 

Later, after supper, he took the cup (hold up cup),

gave thanks for it

and shared it with all who had gathered. 

 

He said, Drink from this cup.

 It is the cup of the new promise that I make with you.

Do this whenever you gather in remembrance of me and be filled. 

 

“And so in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. 

 

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”*

 

(hold up hands over bread and juice)

 

Pour out your Spirit on these gifts of bread and juice. As we share at the table you have set for us, in fellowship, allow us to be filled with your grace, filled with your peace, filled with your justice, filled with your love. Make these elements be for us the body of Christ, that we might be his body for the world. 

 

Prayer After Receiving:

God who fills us, body and soul, from the tiny beginnings of a seed, 

Your wellspring of wisdom never runs dry. Your fountain of forgiveness never ceases to flow. Your generosity never ceases. May our thankfulness similarly never end. These bits of bread and drops of juice that we have taken into our bodies are but tiny reminders of the great goodness that you have for each of us. Use them to make us into the great goodness that the world needs from you, today and always. 

Amen.

 

* From “Word and Table” service options, The United Methodist Hymnal.

Land Acknowledgement

For thousands of years, the space where we prayerfully gather today was under the care of the insert the names of the tribes native to your area. (Use Native-Land.ca to find out the people.) Their presence in this region is remembered and woven into the history of our community. During this season and throughout the year, we seek to partner in repairing past harm and to move forward with awareness and respect, celebrating and embracing the contributions of the people native to this place.

 

Benediction

May God, who established the dance of creation, who marveled at the lilies of the field, who transforms chaos to order, lead us to transform our lives and the church to listen to the voice of all of creation.

(adapted from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) Eco-Congregation Programme) 

 

Alternative Communion Liturgy (any date)

A Great Thanksgiving Based on Psalm 8
by Rev. Dr. Lisl Heymans Paul  

 

Season of Creation 2022 Celebration Guide

https://seasonofcreation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/SOC-2022-Celebration-Guide-Final-English.pdf
See especially p. 41–42 for constructing a building bush in your worship space.

 

Seasonal Images With Weekly Themes

Background photo credit: Jessica Delp on Unsplash.com

Contributors

Rev. Laura Baumgartner: Themes, Images, Scripture, Hymns, Opening Prayers, Calls to Worship, Ideas for Children’s Time, Land Acknowledgement, Communion Services

Rev. Laura Baumgartner serves the Haller Lake United Methodist Church in Seattle, WA. She also serves as chair of the board at Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light. Laura’s experience in the environmental field includes the publication of several courses and articles, most recently a primer on PFAS chemicals in waterways for the Fall 2019 edition of Earth Letter. Laura loves to be outside taking long walks with her dog, playing at the playground, or floating in the lake. 

Rev. Richenda Fairhurst: Pastoral Prayers

Ordained in the United Methodist tradition, Rev. Richenda Fairhurst has served churches in Oregon and Washington state and currently serves on the Board of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon where she chairs the Creation Justice Committee and Oregon Interfaith Power and Light. She has published poetry, articles, and three books. She currently serves as Organizing Director and Steward of Climate at Circle Faith Future, and organizes the Climate Café Multifaith. She lives in rural Oregon, and shares her backyard with deer, bear, raccoons, turkeys and other wildlife.

Rev. Jenny Phillips: Opening Prayer and Call to Worship for Week 5 

Rev. Jenny Phillips is Senior Technical Advisor for Environmental Sustainability at Global Ministries, and is an elder from the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UMC. Jenny has written worship and education resources for the American Bible Society, Chalice Press, Eco-Justice Ministries, Global Ministries, GreenFaith, Routledge, Seasons of the Spirit, and others. She loves to hike, paddleboard and garden in God’s creation.

Rev. Paul Mitchell: Seasonal Images With Weekly Themes

Rev. Paul Mitchell is pastor at Pioneer United Methodist Church in Walla Walla, WA. He is a social justice contemplative, a science fiction fan, a CrossFitter, and loves to cook and sing.

 

Copyright 2022 by United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. Permission granted to reprint, copy, record, stream, or display on screens any of the resources in this document for congregational or small group worship or non-profit educational use. 

Pastoral Prayers Copyright 2022 by Rev. Richenda Fairhurst. Permission granted to UMCJM to reprint, copy, record, stream, or display on screens any of the Pastoral Prayers in this document for congregational or small group worship or non-profit educational use.