Formation Friday: The Season of Creation
Formation Friday is a weekly blog from our Minister of Formation Scott Coulter, exploring what it means to be an Episcopalian. From the theological to the practical, this is all about understanding the Episcopal Church, walking with Christ, understanding the Word, and living out our Baptismal Covenant to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves”.
Every September, the Episcopal Church celebrates Creationtide, or the Season of Creation. This annual observance concludes with the Feast Day of St. Francis, known for his love of animals and the whole of God’s wonderous creation. It is worth sharing his beautiful “Canticle of the Creatures” before going any further:
All praise be yours, My Lord, through all that you have made. And first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day....
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright and precious and fair.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air....
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water, so useful, lowly, precious and pure.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten up the night....
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us...and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs....
Praise and bless my Lord, and give God thanks,
And serve God and God’s creation with great humility.
This is certainly one of the most joyous prayers in all of Christendom. Reverence and love shine through like a light shining through the darkness, and one cannot help but feel a deep sense of connectedness with nature. Within this deep sense of interconnectedness is an understanding that we humans are not separate from this beautiful created world around us. We are not “masters over it”, but rather we are a part of it. We are called to be faithful stewards of it. We are called to serve this world in the way Jesus asked his followers to be servants.
And in these environmentally precarious times, Creation Care is a deeply prophetic call. The scriptural theme for this year’s Creationtide from the National Episcopal Church is Isaiah 32:14-18. Here, the Prophet describes the empty cities and the barren fields of a ravaged Earth, and cries out for renewal. As Disciples of the Way, we are called to embody this renewal. Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven as a seed in so many of his Parables. And so we must act as seed planters. We must be the early adopters of the Kingdom, long before the rest of the world catches up. Our Baptismal Covenant demands nothing less, and nothing more, than to be the seed-planters of the Kingdom.
And so, this year I am inviting all of us to take up an “inconvenient Creationtide practice”. Why inconvenient? Because Discipleship asks us to extend ourselves. Discipleship asks us to live beyond what is comfortable, what is convenient. And of course, our individual practices won’t magically solve the problems we face. But that’s not why we take up this challenge. We take up this challenge to inspire those around us. We do it to plant the seeds of the Kingdom. We do it to be the light that others might see. We do it because we value the Kingdom of Heaven above all else. Our motivation comes not for reward or accomplishment or victory. Our motivation comes from our desire to follow in the footsteps of a Crucified Messiah who gave His life for many; not because the many deserved it, but because selfless love is the way of God.
So, let us embark on an inconvenient Creationtide! To learn more, go to our Creationtide 2025 page. There you can get more resources from the national church, and share your “inconvenient practice” with the rest of the community. Let us be seed planters together. Amen.