Season of Creation - September

The observance of a Season of Creation began in the Lutheran Church in Australia in 2000 as a response to the environmental crisis. Since then, this opportunity for the church to examine creation-based themes has spread to many different denominations and around the world. The season follows a 3-year cycle, and this year’s theme is “The Spirit in Creation”. The whole series looks like this:

3 September - 1st Sunday in Creation – Forest Sunday.

Genesis 2:4b-22, Psalm 139:13-16, Acts 17:22-28, John 3:1-16

10 September - 2nd Sunday in Creation – Land Sunday

Genesis 3:14-19; 4:8-16, Psalm 139:7-12, Romans 5:12-17, Matthew 12:38-40

17 September - 3rd Sunday in Creation – Wilderness/Outback Sunday

Joel 1:8-10, 17-20, Psalm 18:6-19, Romans 8:18-27, Matthew 3:13- 4:2 or Mark 1:9-13

24 September - 4th Sunday in Creation – River Sunday

Genesis 8:20-22; 9:12-17, Psalm 104:27-33, Revelation 22:1-5, Matthew 28:1-10

1 October - St Francis of Assisi – Blessing of the Animals

These themes and readings come from the original Australian website seasonofcreation.com and are reproduced on the Vanderbilt lectionary website. While the Australian website has not been updated in the last 2 years, a new website which follows the same plan is under construction with up-to-date resources. The large seasonofcreation.org website has additional resources but does not follow the same cycle of themes and readings.

Lectionary Resources

The Canadian Seasons of the Spirit resource is being discontinued after almost 41 years of publication. If you are looking for new resources, Rev Andrew Gamman, who previously wrote 10 Minutes on a Tuesday for Te Hāhi Weteriana o Aotearoa, now writes a weekly subscription-based email resource called Taking Flight. You can find this on the Kereru Publishing website. The resource is Kiwi-based, but now international and ecumenical, and provides creative ideas that major on practical applications from the lectionary passages.