Seasons of the Spirit ~ SeasonsFUSION
Lectionary resources for worship, faith formation, and service
Planet Earth Sunday | Genesis 1:1−25
Photo from Stock.Xchng
In the beginning….
September always feels like a new year to me. In our corner of the world folks are returning from summer holidays, children and teachers are preparing to start school after a two month break, and young adults are heading off to colleges and universities, many launching out on their own for the first time.
At the church, we’re revving up for a new season.This year we’re grateful to have before us the fruits of the work we began almost two years ago when we were invited to be the development community for Season of Creation, Pentecost 2, 2012.
Creating materials for the Season of Creation has been particularly meaningful as we regularly try to raise awareness of our need to live with respect in creation in our church.
This past year we spent the Season of Epiphany focussing on spiritual practices to encourage sustainable living. We pondered how to get beneath the surface of our “environmental lip service” to really become people committed to sustainability in all aspects of our living.
If we practice being grateful not just for what we have but for who we are will we consume less? If we deepen our trust in God’s gracious provision, will we loosen our grip on habits that destroy?
Regularly remembering our connection to every living thing and to the Source of All That Is instills in us a sense of awe and reverence. So I love the way this first week of the Season of Creation, Planet Earth Sunday, invites us to feel the pulsing of God coursing through our planet and through our very lives.
In addition to the resources offered in the worship outline this week, we’ve been wondering what it would be like to have a drum beating as the call to worship is spoken. We’ve been imagining people placing fingers over their own pulse points to feel the Source of Life pulsing within them.
As I write this, the Canadian government is considering allowing a pipeline to be built across our province to pump raw bitumen from the oil sands in Alberta onto tankers that would carry it to China for refining.
A few years ago one of our congregational members, Lawrence Carota, opened our eyes to the impact of the oil sands on the health of our First Nations brothers and sisters in Fort Chippewa northern Alberta. His documentary “Crude Sacrifice” went a long way towards raising our awareness about how people were being adversely affected.
Many in our community divested themselves of investments in the oil sands as a sign of solidarity and willingness to lessen their dependency on fossil fuels. With a proposed new pipeline being considered in our own province, the First Nations Elders of our church are asking us to support them in resisting its arrival in their fishing and hunting grounds.
We are being asked once again to remember our interconnectedness. We’re also being invited, I believe, to draw on the creative energy that formed us to imagine and make manifest new ways of being on this planet. May our ministry together in this Season of Creation both challenge and inspire us.
Seasons of the Spirit ~ SeasonsFUSION 