From the Laudato Si' Institute at Oxford University.

This year, 2024, September 1 falls on a Sunday. Here are some ideas to celebrate it – you can pick one or a combination. (See also more context about the feast below.)

Before, or after, the Sunday Eucharist: 

(Could be tied to your Sunday service, immediately before or after, or could be done ecumenically at another time that day)

• Invite your community to ponder this great mystery by praying the “Via Creationis” (or “Way of Creation”, inspired by the Via Crucis format).
• Pray the Vespers service (evening prayer) of the Orthodox Church for September 1.
• Organise a Creation-themed prayer for your community using resources such as those of the Season of Creation ecumenical website.
• Work with children or youth to set up an artistic “Creation Scene” symbolizing God’s creation of the world (or an exhibition of many of them), as an opportunity to teach about this important theme; consider placing it/them in a visible place in or near the church.

During the Sunday Eucharist:

(ideas to enrich the meaning of the Paschal mystery commemorated in the Eucharist via its interrelatedness with Creation)

• Hold the service outdoors, in the “Cathedral of Creation”.
• Before you begin, read an excerpt of a message from church leadership (e.g. Creation Day annual messages from the Pope)
• Include Creation-related hymns throughout the service.
• During the Penitential Act, express lament for the ecological crisis and repentance for our sins against God’s creation.
• If outdoors, during the Liturgy of the Word, include a “Reading from the Book of Creation” (a few minutes of silent contemplation of the surrounding scene) right before the usual readings from Scripture. To introduce the moment, you can explain that St Augustine, St Bonaventure, and many others taught that God wrote two sacred books: the book of Scripture and the book of Creation. Alternatively, you could frame such silent contemplation as a moment to ponder the “hymns of praise” of other creatures.
• Bring Creation into the celebration through other gestures; for example, including during the offertory symbols from nature to be taken to the altar alongside bread and wine.
• Encourage your priest to include references to the Feast of Creation, the mystery of God as Creator, and the dual symbolism of Sunday as the “day of both Creation and Resurrection” in the homily; notes based on the Revised Common Lectionary are here.
• During the intercessory prayers (or Prayers of the Faithful), include some about Creation.

After concluding your Creation Day celebration:

1. Post photos on social media using the #SeasonOfCreation hashtag, and it will appear on the Season of Creation website.
2. Send your testimony and/or ideas for future guides of Creation Day to [email protected] and also to the Archdiocese of Birmingham Care of Creation committee via [email protected]
3. Participate also in the larger season from September 1 to October 4: SeasonOfCreation.org (lots of ideas in the ecumenical Celebration Guide).

What is the Feast of Creation

The Feast of Creation of September 1, also known as Creation Day or World Day of Prayer for Creation, is the big celebration that inspires and nourishes the larger Season of Creation that flows from it. Inspired by a rich tradition of the Orthodox Church, it was later embraced by the World Council of Churches in 2008 and the Catholic Church in 2015. 

Besides being a moment to repent for our sinful desecration of the gift of Creation and pray for its healing, the feast honors God as Creator and commemorates the great mystery of the creation of the cosmos (learn more about the feast’s history and symbolism). In other words, this feast is not just about celebrating “Creation as the created world” that God gifted us, but most importantly it is about celebrating “Creation as foundational mystery” of our Christian faith.

In a nutshell, it is a moment to thank and praise the Triune God as Creator. Given that most Christian churches have historically focused so much on God as Redeemer, this feast is an invaluable opportunity to celebrate God as Creator. This need was stressed by many Christian leaders, such as Benedict XVI who once said: “The Redeemer is the Creator and if we do not proclaim God in his full grandeur – as Creator and as Redeemer – we also diminish the value of the Redemption... The renewal of the doctrine of Creation and a new understanding of the inseparability of Creation and Redemption are of supreme importance.”

This year, 2024, September 1 falls on a Sunday, so it is a very special occasion to encourage your church or community to include the feast and mystery of Creation in the Sunday celebration. It is worth reminding the community about Sunday’s dual symbolism as both “the day of Creation” – “the first day of the week” when God began the creative act, as per Genesis 1 – and “the day of the Resurrection” (as affirmed for example by St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, 67, and St. Gregory the Great, Primo die quo Trinitas, 1).