Churches urged to celebrate and care for Creation

Churches in Ireland are being urged to join with Christians throughout the globe during Creation Time (1^st September to 4^th October) in celebrating Creation and considering how they care for the earth.

In keeping with the United Nations' International Year of Biodiversity, the theme of this year's Creation Time is Creation Flourishing - A Time for Celebration and Care. 

In the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, Eco Congregation Ireland (ECI) hopes that Christians will take time to consider the impact of human activity on the environment as well as celebrating the beauty of the natural world and promoting sustainable lifestyles.

ECI has been involved in preparing the extensive Creation Time resources, which can be downloaded from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website -http://www.ctbi.org.uk/498. Included are prayers, sermon notes, liturgy, biodiversity facts, resources for children's groups/schools and action ideas for groups and individuals. They are designed to help churches, groups and individuals focus on a Creation theme, either on one occasion or over the five weeks of Creation Time.

Catherine Brennan SSL, Eco Congregation Ireland chairperson, hopes that churches of all denominations will take up the call to celebrate Creation Time and to become proactively involved in practical environmental initiatives. "During Creation Time this year all Christians are invited to enjoy and celebrate the beauty and diversity of our abundant planet, to ask forgiveness for its degradation, to pray for its protection and commit ourselves to its healing and care," she says.

"Every time we allow any species or habitat to become extinct through greed or carelessness, we remove something unique of God's self-revelation in Creation. To disturb the integrity of Creation is to disfigure the Creator.

"Protecting biodiversity is also about the vital resources that underpin the wealth and health of the world's poor and that provide the vital needs for the well-being of us all. Investing in this capital is the only way to ensure a sustainable future for the world's children."

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference, in its recent pastoral reflection The Cry of the Earth, have asked churches to join together in celebrating Creation Time. WCC believes it is essential to develop ‘climate change-competent' churches, given that continual global warming is putting many lives at risk. Thousands of climate refugees have already had to flee from droughts, typhoons, hurricanes and rising sea levels.   

In preparation for the 2010 UN Climate Change Conference, which will take place in Mexico later this year, the Creation Time resources include material to enable churches, groups and individuals to focus on issues relating to the decisions which will need to be taken. In the face of mounting evidence that we are heading for runaway climate change and massive losses in biodiversity, there is the need for an international treaty that would bind governments to drastic and immediate cuts in carbon emissions, but this requires courageous and far-sighted political leadership to transform our economy and many aspects of our culture.

More than ever, Christians are being called to demonstrate their commitment to care for Creation by living simply and sustainably themselves, and by pressing politicians to take the measures necessary at national and international level.  This is undergirded by the hope we share as Christians, based ultimately in God's good plans for his Creation, the cosmic scope of Christ's saving work, and the Spirit's renewing power at work within and through human beings.