The Second Ecumenical European Assembly adopted the following resolution: "We recommend that the churches consider and promote the preservation of Creation as part of church life at all levels. One way would be to observe a common creation day, such as the Ecumenical Patriarchate celebrates each year. Rationale: The seriousness of the ecological dilemma for the future of the human race means that churches' consciousness of it must be raised. Commitment to preservation of the creation is not an issue among many others but an essential dimension of all church life.'"
It was part of the document which can be downloaded here (allowing you to see it in context):
Care for God’s Creation, A Discussion Guide for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu I'm a big fan of the idea; when I was in University chaplaincy I experimented with it: after all the university year is hard to process liturgically alongside the regular year. So in our chaplaincy we began with a season of creation-related Sundays (after a couple of welcome-related ones) with a focus on creation care, eco-footprints, counter-consumerism etc. I'm just wondering now how to bring it into the Common Lectionary ... [goes away musing].
Htt CEL
2 comments:
When I was an Anglican a new lectionary was introduced in 1969, which lasted for at least the next 15 years. The cycle began on the 9th Sunday before Christmas, following old testament themes of Creation Fall, Preservation (Noah) etc. So Creation Sunday was on the Ninth Sunday before Christmas, which roughly corresponds with the beginning of the Church Year in the Orthodox Church on 1 September, which is also used to commemorate creation.
The Anglicans appear to have dropped that lectionary and now use something else, but it seemed better than what they used previously and what they use now.
Well, what we use now is the RCL, which is ecumenically agreed, so it's quite nice for those of us who occasionally get to preach outside of Anglicanity still to use the same lections, broadly speaking.
We dropped the ASB scheme (9 sundays before Christmas etc, as you say) because of the RCL but also the thematic treatment tended to impose on scripture. The RCL approach is more to allow the lections to speak for themselves. Which I approve of but at the same time I do get twinges of nostalgia for the themes.
I'm not keen on one or two things about RCL. One is ending the year liturgically with Christ the King. I'm not keen on this Roman thing and fear that the resonances of the feast are a little too imperialistic (having lived in Spain, I'm wary of Cristo Rey imagery and its linkage to Franquismo). I also feel that it would have been good to keep something of the 9 Sundays before Christmas, though I've no objection to Kingdomtide which is almost as good. I do like the recovery of Candlemas.
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