Season of Creation begins again this September 1 and runs through October 4. It started as a single day of prayer in the Orthodox Church in 1989; the Catholic Church joined in 2015; today it’s marked ecumenically by congregations across many traditions.
At GBCS, that’s what we owe each other: not just shared prayer, but a shared claim on what creation provides — clean air, clean water, a livable climate — rather than letting the costs land hardest on the communities with the least power to refuse them. That throughline runs across everything the office works on; this piece just follows it through water.
GBCS’s reflection for this Season of Creation begins with Ezekiel’s vision of a river flowing from the temple — deepening until it’s too much to walk through, healing everything it touches. Our environmental justice work includes the opposite kind of water: PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, still showing up in tap water near the industrial sites, military bases, and landfills where they originate. The EPA has proposed rescinding federal drinking-water limits on several of these chemicals — a decision still pending — which would hit hardest in the low-income communities and communities of color who live closest to these sites and can least afford to filter their own water.
However your congregation marks the season, in worship or quietly at home, I hope you’ll hold that connection — between what we pray for and what we’re willing to fight for. And if you want a date to build around, World Rivers Day falls on September 27 this year — a good excuse for a river cleanup, a prayer walk by the water, or just noticing where your own tap water actually comes from.
“Everything will live where the river goes.” — Ezekiel 47:9
Darina Regio is the Director for Environmental Justice at the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), where she leads the agency’s legislative and policy advocacy on climate justice, sustainability, clean water, and food justice. She works in coalition with United Methodists, ecumenical, interfaith, and secular partners to advance environmental justice priorities, and will represent GBCS internationally at UN climate negotiations this year.
See also Where the Hope Comes From