The Season of Creation is a spiritual journey of seven Sundays into all aspects of creation – human, other living creatures, and the natural environment.
During the Season of Creation at SsAM, you will be invited to listen, to pray and to reflect on the diverse ways that we are called to care for and to love all God’s creation including the story of creation, the care for mother earth our fragile home, and one another. We will reflect and pray for the entire human family and for the cessation of wars around the world and we will remember the people in our lives who are –and who have been– saints to us. We will express God’s generosity towards us by committing ourselves to give of our time, talent and treasure and we will conclude by committing ourselves to pray for and live into being Christ in the world.
COME AND CELEBRATE GOD’S CREATION!
Season of Creation Services are on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. from
October 15 to November 26. Readings.SOC 2017
October 15
SEASON OF CREATION I – In The Beginning
The Rev. Canon Lloyd S. Casson, Rector Emeritus
Reflection:
“When God pronounced that his creation was good, it was not only that his hand had fashioned every creature; it was that his breath had brought every creature to life. The presence of God’s spirit in all living beings is what makes them beautiful; and, if we look with God’s eyes, nothing on earth is ugly.” Pelagius.
Prayer:
The more I reflect upon the profound laws of evolution, the more I am convinced that the Universal Christ would be unable to appear at the end of time at the world’s summer, unless he had previously inserted himself into the course of the world’s movement by way of birth in the form of an element.
Teilhard de chardin
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice demands for the United States government to be held accountable for violations of human rights and land rights, both domestically and internationally.
Environmental justice calls for us to build communities, conduct gatherings, and build our political structures in a way that reflects the histories, traditions and practices of the full spectrum of identities and abilities that make up the communities we come from and that do not reflect the structures that oppress us.
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October 22
SEASON OF CREATION II – Our Living Planet 
Dr. Mildred McClain
Dr. Mildred McClain is the Executive Director of Harambee House in Savannah, GA. She recently won the national Sierra Club’s Dr. Robert Bullard EJ Award, and is also receiving the EJ Award in November 2017 at the National American Public Health. Harambee House/Citizens For Environmental Justice is a community based organization whose mission is to build the capacity of communities to solve their problems and to engage in positive growth and development. The organization was created in 1990, is located in Savannah, GA and serves communities at the local, state, regional, national and international levels.
Dr. McClain has been a human rights activists and teacher for over 40 years. She has served on numerous committees, commissions, working groups and boards. She created major partnerships with the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and many community base organizations, with the goals of addressing public health and environmental justice issues and concerns.
Dr. McClain served as an efficient delegate to the World Conference Against Racism and the World Summit on Sustainable Development both held in South Africa. Under Dr. McClain’s leadership for the past 20 years the Black Youth Leadership Development Institute has trained over 1500 young people to serve as leaders in their communities. Dr. McClain is a mother and grandmother. The goal of the work is to develop the capacity of our community to create lifestyles that promote health, wellness and environmental sustainability. Through community gardens, health fairs, testing children for lead poison, and soil testing in contaminated communities.
Reflection:
Benedicite
Bless the Lord all created things,
Sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
O let the earth bless the Lord:
Bless the Lord you mountains and hills.
Bless the Lord, you seas and rivers:
Sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord you waters above the heavens:
Sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, fire and heat:
Sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, all winds that blow:
Sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Prayer:
Lord of Creation
Come Lord Christ, king of the earth,
Lead us as we walk with you that the early may be healed.
Come, Holy Spirit hovering over the water and guide us as we said to you, that the waters may flow with life.
Come, you angels of the fire and light and show us how to dance with you, that in the light may be born the flame of love.
Come, you breath of the air, and inspire us with the breath of you, that the air may reverberate with the sound of the word.
Come, Lady Mary and the saints of heaven and help us to pray with you, that the earth may be redeemed through the love of Christ.
Brendanus Scotus, from Lord of Creation – a Resource for Creative Celtic Spirituality
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice demands that youth seek to challenge and change the environmentally destructive aspects of our lifestyles in order to stop the destruction of our planet.
October 29
SEASON OF CREATION III – Our Common Humanity
The Rev. Canon Lloyd S. Casson, Rector Emeritus
Reflection:
Creator God, breathing your own life into our being, you gave us the gift of life: you placed us on this earth with its minerals and waters, flowers and fruits, living creatures of grace and beauty! You gave us the care of the earth. Today you call us: Where are you; what have you done?”
From The Dance Eucharist for Creation, Brendan O’Malley
Prayer:
Footsteps of Love
I am walking on the earth; the earth is my mother. Wherever I walk, I will be home.
I am walking with the people who love me; their love surrounds me. Wherever I walk I will be loved.
I am walking on the circle of the Creator; Creator above, Creator below. Wherever I walk I am with the Creator.
I am walking upon the earth with people who love me; we are walking on the circle of the Creator. I will always be home. I will always be loved. I will always be with the Creator.
Ancient Prayer, adapted.
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice respects and promotes the full involvement of all people across the full spectrum of identities and abilities that make us who we are.
Environmental justice calls for us to utilize movement resources, such as funds, staff and people’s time and energy, in a way that is sustainable, renewable and puts these resources back into our oppressed communities so that they serve the movement as a whole.
November 5
SEASON OF CREATION IV – The Saints Among Us
Kim Eppehimer, Executive Director, Friendship House
Kim has been working at Friendship House since 2014, after volunteering through Red Clay Creek Church Presbyterian Church for several years. After working over a decade in the multi- family and low income real estate field as a loan officer, a Vice President, and a software engineer, her family moved to Delaware while she worked from home as a consultant to be with her two young boys. Once she found work at Friendship House, she knew she found a vocation and a place to call home.
During her time with Friendship House, Kim has been actively involved at each ministry. From ministering to volunteers at winter sanctuary, mentoring interns, and walking with clients in the suburban empowerment expansion ministry she helped to establish, Kim has developed a knowledge and a passion for each of the ministries.
Kim comes to us with a Masters of Accounting from the University of Maryland, and recently received a certificate in Theology and Ministry from Princeton Seminary and a certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Delaware.
Reflection:
“O Spirit, teach me anew and in the context of a new universe story what it means that all of creation, myself included, was “loved from the beginning.” Teach us what it means in giving new life and meaning to our struggling species today.”
From Stations of the Cosmic Christ, Bishop Marc Andrus and Matthew Fox
Prayer:
In what ways are we Light to others?
Light makes learning possible.
Light warms.
Light awakens – thus the term “enlightenment.”
Light illuminates, opens us up, disarms us, brings transformation. Thus Hildegard of Bingen painted her visions and called them “illuminations.”
Light stands up to depression. And to cynicism. And to boredom or couchpotatoitis or acedia.
Light transforms the darkness and radically changes it; light displaces darkness.
From Stations of the Cosmic Christ, Bishop Marc Andrus and Matthew Fox
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice requires the experiences of youth and elders to be shared and respected in all areas of the movement and the need for an inter-generational approach that challenges divisive tendencies.
November 12
SEASON OF CREATION V – Our World at Peace
The Reverend David T. Andrews, Jr., Rector of SsAM
Reflection: Romans 8:31, 35-36, 38-39
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer: Bridges not walls Jan Sutch Pickard
God-with-us, you sit down in our midst.
Nothing can separate us from your love –
not towering concrete walls
or the deep darkness between searchlights;
not distance from friends
or despair in our hearts
that the world’s wrongs cannot be changed.
You are with our brothers crowded at the checkpoint,
with our sisters witnessing for peace:
you sit down in our midst.
Born into poverty, to displaced people living under occupation,
you shared our human lives,
and we know that your love can never be contained
by the walls of separation.
You sit down in our midst, God-with-us.
Amen
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice demands that low-income youth, including immigrant youth, and
indigenous youth, live in communities that are secure from crime, drugs, disease, pollution
and labor exploitation.
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November 19
SEASON OF CREATION VI – Our Role as Stewards
The Rev. Emily Gibson, Associate Priest
Reflection:
A prayer from St. Columba
God our Father, you never cease the work you have begun and prosper with your blessing all human labor: make us wise and faithful stewards of your gifts that we may serve the common good, maintain the fabric of our world and seek that justice where all may share the good things you pour upon us; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Prayer:
I am the wind that breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave on the ocean.
I am the murmur of leaves rustling,
I am the rays of the sun,
I am the beam of the moon and stars,
I am the power of the trees growing,
I am the bud breaking into blossom,
I am the movement of the salmon swimming,
I am the courage of the wild boar fighting,
I am the speed of the stag running,
I am the strength of the ox pulling the plough,
I am the sap of the mighty oak tree,
And I am the thoughts of all people
Who praise my beauty and grace.
From the Black Book of Carmantehm, early Welsh.
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice demands that young people work to incorporate the principles of environmental justice into government funded institutions that perpetuate the issues affecting youth of color, indigenous youth, and immigrant and undocumented youth.
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November 26
SEASON OF CREATION VII – The Cosmic Christ
The Reverend David T. Andrews, Jr., Rector of SsAM
Reflection: Brendanus Scotus
In the beginning was silence, and out of the silence came sound, and out of the sound came the word, and the word was vibration, which took shape in the alphabet of creation.
Out of no-thing God spoke the word, which became matter, the order and substance of cosmos.
Thus through the word made flesh, all that is created out of silence, resonates and returns toward the still, silent mystery of God, before which all words ultimately fall.
Prayer:
Divine Light
O God, you who made the sun, are the sun of my soul and I love your radiance.
I love you, O light eternal;
Grant that I may see you in the brightness of your glory.
Divine Light, proceeding from the splendor of the Trinity
Flood my heart with your love, my mind and my soul and every part of me,
Till I shall be illumined and one with the Light of Christ within me.
Brendanus Scotus, from Lord of Creation – a Resource for Creative Celtic Spirituality
Youth principle of environmental justice:
Environmental justice demands that as youth we stand against unjust war in all its forms, including disproportionate military recruitment in our communities, the media’s glamorization of military lifestyle and the tremendously destructive effects militarism has on the environment.
