Creation Day (in a Season of Creation)

A Season of Creation begins on September 1.

1 September to 4 October is Time for Creation.

The beginning and the end date of Time for Creation are linked with the concern for creation in the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity, respectively.

September 1st was proclaimed as a day of prayer for the environment by the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989. The Orthodox church year starts that day with a commemoration of how God created the world. On 4 October, Roman Catholics and other churches [Episcopal Church!] from the Western traditions commemorate Francis of Assisi, known to many as the author of the Canticle of the Creatures.

The proposal to celebrate a Time for Creation during these five weeks was made by the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu in 2007.The following year, the WCC Central Committee invited churches to observe Time for Creation through prayers and actions. ( from the World Council of Churches website: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/what-we-do/climate-change/time-for-creation )

A Prayer:

Holy God, you alone are unutterable,
from the time you created all things that can be spoken of.
You alone are unknowable,
from the time you created all things that can be known.
All things cry out about you: those that speak, and those that cannot speak.
All things honor you: those that think, and those that cannot think.
For there is one longing, one groaning, which all things have for you.
All things pray to you that comprehend your plan and offer you a silent hymn.
In you, the One, all things abide,
and all things endlessly run to you who are the end of all. Amen.
(source: Gregory of Nazianzus)