A South African Season of Creation
The following proposal was discussed at and adapted after the most recent meeting of the NECCSA Governing Board. It suggests that the full spectrum of opportunities should be used to promote earthkeeping within the context of Christian worship. These opportunities include harvest festivals as well as Environment Sunday (closest to 5 June, i.e. 3 June 2007). In addition, South African churches are also encouraged to celebrate a “Season of Creation” – where possible already in 2007, while planning is already underway for 2008.
Introduction
Since its inception in 2002 NECCSA has encouraged its members and other churches to celebrate Environment Sunday on an annual basis on the Sunday closest to World Environment Day (5 June). The motif behind this initiative is that, if local Christian communities can address environmental concerns at least once a year, this may have a profound long term impact on Christian discourse, attitudes, practices and reflection. This is particularly significant since various ecclesiastical festive days (especially Christmas and Easter) are characterised by a consumer mentality. They have degenerated into store-centred holidays. It is therefore important to have an ecclesiastical festive day that focuses on caring for the earth rather than on the consumption of its resources.
Since the previous century sporadic efforts were made to structure a particular Sunday during the liturgical year as Arbor Day, Rural Sunday, Nature Sunday, a Feast of Creation, Earth Day or Environmental Sabbath. In 1972 the UN declared 5 June as World Environment Day. Many churches all over the world subsequently started to structure the Sunday closest to 5 June as Environment Sunday.
There are also several other opportunities in the church year for special celebrations relation to the themes of creation and the environment:
· The Greek Orthodox Church has proclaimed 1 September each year to be celebrated as the Feast Day of creation.
· The Feast day for St Francis of Assisi is 4 October.
· Earth Day is celebrated on 22 April. On a day that school children and others participate in environmental projects, Christian communities can bear witness that “the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.”
· Various churches allow for harvest celebration in the appropriate season and time according to local forms of agriculture.
There are also a number of other secular days with a special focus on environmental concerns. One may link any of these themes with Biblical texts and aspects of the Christian faith. The following days provide an opportunity for special liturgical celebrations as well as action on particular environmental themes:
World Environment Day 5 June
World Wetland Day 2 February
World Day for Water 22 March
World Meteorological Day 23 March
World Health Day 7 April
Earth Day 22 April
International Day for Biological Diversity 22 May
World Environmental Day 5 June
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 17 June
World Population Day 11 July
World Habitat Day 5 October
Arbor Day 5 September
International Coastal Clean-up 15 September
World Food Day 16 October
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 17 October
National Marine Day 19 October
World AIDS Day 1 December
In addition, the following week-long initiatives may be observed in South Africa for 2007:
National Water Week 19-25 March
National Bird Week 30 April – 6 May
World Environment Week 4-8 June
National Clean up week 10-15 September
National Arbor Week 1-7 September
National Weedbuster Week 8-14 October
National Marine Week 15-19 October
At several meetings of the NECCSA Governing Board it has been decided that the full spectrum of days of special celebration should be promoted. It has also expressed support for the initiative towards “a Season of creation”.
Background to a Season of Creation
Following the proposal of the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitri I in 1989 more and more churches of all confessional traditions observe the period from September 1 to the first Sunday after October as a “Time for Creation”.
Moreover, in its recommendation on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches has also urged churches to “set apart September 1 each year as a day of prayer for creation and its sustainability”.
The European Christian Environment Network invites all the churches in Europe to celebrate a “Time for Creation” in the Church calendar each year, from 1 September to the second Sunday in October. Each year ECEN publishes liturgical material for churches to use in Creation Time. For four Sundays in September, prior to St Francis of Assisi Day (4 October), they join in celebrating with Christ the wonders of creation.
Christian groups in Australia have in recent years introduced the notion of a “Season of Creation” calendar. This should complement other liturgical seasons such as Advent, Lent, and Pentecost by focusing on God the Creator during the liturgical period after Trinity Sunday. They have developed liturgies, Bible studies, earth care activities, children’s addresses, sermon topics and visuals to promote such a Season of Creation.
The Season of Creation calendar has been revised to make it more international and ecumenical in character and more adaptable to the calendar expectations of different countries and traditions. It has been adapted for use in New Zealand, the Philippines, the USA and Europe (see <www.ecen.org>) Each community and country is, of course, free to modify this calendar so that it fits the dates, days and themes of the local situation. For more information visit the website <www.seasonofcreation.com> for free online resources.
At the most recent meeting of the NECCSA Governing Board it was decided that opportunities to introduce such a “Season of Creation” in South Africa should be explored. Moreover, the SACC National Executive agreed in February 2007 that a Season of Creation be included in the SACC Calendar.
This proposal was also discussed within the context of an annual project of the Bureau for Continuing Theological Education (BUVTON), located at Stellenbosch University. Over the last eight years or so BUVTON has produced a number of publications based on the Revised Common Lectionary. These include a daily lectionary for lay members, a lectionary for preachers (with liturgical and homiletic guidelines, based on a detailed exegetical discussion of the relevant readings and also some catechetical material.
For each of these publications there is a team of collaborators who do the necessary research and editors who collect and collate the material. These publications are fairly widely distributed, especially in the Western Cape region. Although they are produced mainly within the context of the Dutch Reformed Church and the Uniting Reformed Church, they are used more widely. There are also plans to translate these publications annually into other South African languages. Suffice it to say that these handy publications probably influence the worship of a fairly large number of congregations.
Since 2000 the lectionary for preachers has included a special focus for Environment Sunday. In October and November 2006 a proposal was discussed and approved to incorporate a Season of Creation into both the lectionaries for lay members and for preachers with a view to planned publications for 2008. The proposal for the introduction of a Season of Creation in South Africa below follows the planning that has been done in this regard.
A South African Season of Creation: A proposal for 2008
The following text may be used by Christian denominations and local Christian communities in South Africa to plan towards the introduction of a Season of Creation in 2008.
A season of creation: The gospel as the birth of life
1 September (The Feast day of Creation) followed by 21 & 28 September, 5 & 12 October 2008
There are more and more churches, from different confessional traditons all over the world, where a Season of Creation is adhered to in the period of the liturgical year focusing on the reign of God, especially after 1 September. This follows on a proposal in this regard made by the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitri I in 1989. Moreover, in its recommendation on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches has also urged churches to “set apart September 1 each year as a day of prayer for creation and its sustainability”.Since then churches in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and the USA have taken the led to develop initiatives and liturgical and other material for such a Season of Creation. Together with the celebration of Environment Sunday (8 June 2008) and several other ecclesial festive days, such a Season of Creation, can help churches in South Africa to focus on such themes.
For Christians, the narrative of God’s great work on earth can be captured under the themes of creation, evolutionary history, the emergence of humanity, the legacy of human sin, God’s providential care, the history of salvation, the church and her mission and the eschatological completion of God’s work. In the Season of Creation” the focus is on one of these themes, namely God’s creation. In the past creation has often been understood merely as the stage where the drama of salvation between God and humans is being played out. The ecological crisis has opened our eyes to see God’s gift of creation, the impact of human sin on creation and the redemption of creation, together with humanity.
There are numerous texts in the Bible that deal explicitly with the theme of creation. Here one may mention beloved texts such as Genesis 1, 2 and 9, Psalm 8, 19 and 104, Isaiah 40-66, portions from the Sermon on the Mount, Romans 8, Colossians 1 and Revelation 21. However, there is far more at stake than that. When one reads the Bible with a lens that helps one to become sensitive for references to that which is earthly, then one would soon discover that the Bible is “filled to the brim” with ecological overtones. On every page of the Bible one reads about mountains and hills, soil and water, rivers and seas, wind and fire, life and death, plants and trees, animals and birds – and also about human beings. The earth and all its creatures are intimately interwoven with God’s loving care for humanity. What is at stake here is not only something interesting that the Bible may have to say about trees, for example. Each of these themes can help one to understand the whole message of the Bible from a different angle – precisely because the whole drama of creation, sin, redemption and completion also touches upon, for example, God’s trees. Often, when humans fail to understand God’s word or fail to do God’s will, then mountains and trees are called upon to proclaim the gospel. Each of these themes can therefore help us to look at the heart of the gospel afresh.
In the South African Season of Creation we plan to investigate one of these themes each year. In September / October 2008 we will look at “the gospel as the birth of (new) life”. The Bible is full of this theme. We read about God’s gift of life, about life in Christ, the new life given by the Spirit and eternal life. A Season of Creation can help us especially to see the continuity between biological life and this new life. Both are gifts from God, both are signs of God’s grace but also of God’s judgement. The story of life on earth is the story of the origin and evolution of life, the mortality of all forms of life, the devastating consequences of human sin for all life on earth, the work of the Holy Spirit as the “Giver of Life” (the Nicene Creed), precisely amidst deadly circumstances, the ministry of Jesus Christ as “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, the ministry of new life throughout the history of the church and the hope for eternal life, on earth as it is in heaven.
The Season of Creation in 2008 covers the four Sundays of 21 and 28 September as well as 5 and 12 October. The readings for the Revised Common Lectionary for these weeks focus on four texts from the letter to the Philippians, namely 1:21-30, 2:1-13, 3:4b-14 and 4:1-9. In each of these texts the themes of life and death are prominent. Congregations, members of Christian communities, Sunday school teachers, lay leaders and clergy are encouraged during these weeks to study these texts with a view to the celebration of a Season of Creation, to use these texts for sermons, Bible studies and catechesis, to reflect on their significance for one’s immediate environment, to seek opportunities for special liturgical celebrations, and to engage in appropriate earthkeeping activities during this season of the church calendar.