Worship Series Coming from UMCJM for Season of Creation, featuring themes related to the Feast of Creation/Creation in Christ Sunday
by Rev. Laura Baumgartner
As has been the pattern for the last several years, the Worship Team from the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is developing a new Season of Creation worship series for use in September 2026 or when worship leaders determine it is best for their congregations to be introduced to the change in the calendar. Given the new liturgical holiday, Creation in Christ Sunday/The Feast of Creation, being added this year, the new resources will explore the Year A lectionary texts for the new holiday in depth possibly over the course of an entire month or even more, allowing congregations to learn, experience, and be transformed by the Holy through the richness, beauty, and interconnection of Creation.
The resources this year will include a brand new ritual for use throughout the series and whenever God’s acts of creation are celebrated during worship, like at Christmas, Easter, or when a baptism is celebrated. The ritual will involve lighting a lantern made of salt crystals and may be included in the Call to Worship for each worship service in the series. The weekly materials will also include prayers, liturgy, preaching notes, sermon illustrations, ideas for bringing the themes into the worship space through visual and graphic art, resources for adults, youth, and children to engage in Christian education around the weekly themes, music suggestions, and more. Beyond the four Sundays of September, ideas for an ecumenical service on or around September 1 to recognize Christian’s shared traditions within the created world will be included in the materials, all of which will be released in June’ 2026.
Series creators include salt as one of the evocative elements for the series and September 1st Feast Day. A salt lantern can be lit for the service(s) as a prayerful accompaniment to the prayers and liturgies.
The resources this year will include a brand new ritual for use throughout the series and whenever God’s acts of creation are celebrated during worship, like at Christmas, Easter, or when a baptism is celebrated. The ritual will involve lighting a lantern made of salt crystals and may be included in the Call to Worship for each worship service in the series. The weekly materials will also include prayers, liturgy, preaching notes, sermon illustrations, ideas for bringing the themes into the worship space through visual and graphic art, resources for adults, youth, and children to engage in Christian education around the weekly themes, music suggestions, and more. Beyond the four Sundays of September, ideas for an ecumenical service on or around September 1 to recognize Christian’s shared traditions within the created world will be included in the materials, all of which will be released in June’ 2026.
This series invites congregations and worship leaders to engage themes from Creation and texts about Creation in ways that inspire action, motivate advocacy, and co-create with the Holy Spirit systems of justice. Environmental challenges like rising sea levels, increased intensity and frequency of fires and storms, and prolonged periods of drought disproportionately affect those who are already struggling. These worship materials seek to highlight stories and bring to the forefront voices from the front lines of environmental justice struggles, while also offering a hope-filled, joyful path forward with God to a time of restoration and new life.
More information about the new series will be available at the May Movement Café on May 20 at 10am PT, and in the June newsletter.
For those who would like to review worship materials produced by the Worship Team from UMCJM in previous years, some of which were produced in partnership with Discipleship Ministries, either for the Season of Creation or Eastertide, use the links below. All series may be used at any time during the year, regardless of when they were originally published.