Listen to today's SCRIBBLES here
And it's not even Christmas.
I, for one, have been like Martha, busy about many things. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit has been moving in ways I did not even know, like the sower in Mark's gospel, that sows the seed and sleeps and rises night after day without knowing how the seed grows. Much has occurred without my awareness.
For centuries, the Eastern Orthodox Church has celebrated September 1 as a liturgical feast marking God's creation of the world. In 1989, the Orthodox invited the "entire Christian world" to celebrate this observance in view of our current ecological crisis. This invitation was warmly embraced by a vast number of Christan churches. In 2001, Pope Francis, as part of his larger message in the encyclical, Laudete Si, established Sept 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Multiple Christian churches across the world began to enter into an ecumenical process of prayer, reflection, and dialogue.
One result of this was a recent announcement by the Consultation on Common Texts, the ecumenical group that oversees the Revised Common Lectionary and determines the Sunday Readings for all mainline Protestant churches. In April 2026, the CCT formally announced that a new feast is being added to the church year and to the Revised Common Lectionary The number of Christian traditions participating in this is astounding.
Here's a YouTube from the Anglican Church that does a fine job explaining the significance of this feast in an understandable way. (3:57 min).
One of the things I love about this is that the observation is not limited to a single day but is, in fact, a season lasting until October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis. There is nothing instantaneous about this, of course. There's barely enough time between now and Sept 1st for the average faith community to even learn of it. I expect it will be in the coming years that we see the effects of this feast as it ushers in a new and growing awareness.
As you watch the above YouTube and you will notice the many aspects of this new Feast that are truly cause for joy as we focus on:
- The Trinity and Creation
- God the Father as Maker of heaven and earth
- Jesus Christ as eternal Word through whom all was made
- Holy Spirit as Giver of life
- Sacredness of the created world
- Our role as stewards of creation
- Creation does not belong to us, rather it:
- comes from God's love
- is sustained by God's generosity
- remains the object of God's delight and care
- Resurrection of Jesus Christ as redemptive for all creation
- Prayer as praise and as power for change
- Church seasons as central to our celebration and growth
- Unprecedented ecumenical cooperation
- Reason for hope, focus on future / move beyond anxiety, guilt, and inertia
No doubt the observance of the Feast of Creation will take various shapes in different churches with its influence growing in the years ahead. It is exciting to be part of something so young and so timely.
I would love to hear back from you on what part of this new feast most inspires you. Please do what you can to spread the good news!
In the providence of the Holy Spirit's timing, this new book from my dear friend, Lucinda Vardey, is just now available as I share the news of the Feast of Creation.
Twenty years in the making, Lucinda’s new book The Green Soul: Returning to Our Sacred Belonging in Nature is published this month by HarperOne.
"You might consider this book a field guide to the spiritual practice of the outdoors, where belonging, flourishing, and what Lucinda calls 'superabundance' become our shared inheritance. We've been too often estranged and exiled from this inheritance, and it's time to come home. As she writes, 'Just as the human heart, like the heart of other creatures, is the vital organ for being and staying alive, there is a great, expansive, all-embracing heart that beats throughout creation.'
Drawing from her remakable stories of relationship with the land, field notes from the ancient Tuscany homestead where she lives, and research from scientists, and spiritual guides of the ages,The Green Soul is her treatise on reawakening humanity's essential relationship with nature." (Stephanie Duncan Smith, Senior Editor, Harper One).
I am the process of reading this now and loving every page. I highly recommend you join me on this journey - Kathleen
Responses from Readers...
Notes from Kathleen
I gained so much from the session with Amy Jill Levine. With more than 500 participants online over a swath of time zones, I have no idea if any of you joined me, but there is still time to sign up for the last of the series on Tuesday, September 1 at 8:30 am CDT:Supercessionism: Naming and Addressing the Issue.
I am also pleased that the newsletter on Mary Magdalene prompted an invitation from United Lutheran Bella Vista to present on Mary Magdalene Sept 21st, 9:30 am at the monthly WELCA meeting. Please join us if you are in the area of Bella Vista, AR.
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