2013: God of life, lead us to justice and peace
Time for Creation
In 2013, during Time for Creation, the WCC invited churches and congregations to join the preparation for the WCC 10th Assembly which took place in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 30 October to 8 November 2013. The Assembly is a unique moment when the fellowship of churches unites in prayer, celebration and sets the future agenda for the council.
The assembly theme, “God of life, lead us to justice and peace” provided a focus for theological reflection, worship and meditation, as well as for planning programmatic activities before, during and after the assembly.
Life, justice and peace are intimately related to creation. Creation is indeed life threatened; there is an urgent need for eco-justice and peace with the earth.
Thirteen articles exploring the assembly theme in relation to the life-threatening ways in which we treat our planet and its inhabitants can be found in the March issue of The Ecumenical Review, entitled Ecumenical and Ecological Reflections on the God of Life.
Prayers and ideas for marking this special time have also been shared on Facebook or Twitter.
Liturgical resources
- Resources for the WCC 10th Assembly, including songs and prayers
- Multilingual brochure "God’s creation – a house of life for all" (pdf, 660 KB) published by the Evangelical Church in Central Germany in cooperation with partner churches from Slovakia, Sweden, Tanzania and the United States.
- Worship resources for the four Sundays produced by Eco Congregation Scotland on behalf of the Church of Scotland.
- Sermon notes, intercessions, group study and harvest festival ideas by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (in English with Welsh and Irish translations).
- Outline of a prayer service on the theme of creation held at the Ecumenical Centre on 22 April 2013
- Resources collected by the Anglican Communion Environmental Network
- Resources provided by Let all Creation Praise
- Resources including a set of worship service outlines by the United Church of Canada
- Exegetical and liturgical resources collected by the Network of Earthkeeping Christian Communities in South Africa (in English and Afrikaans)
- Prayers, blessings and meditations collected by the European Christian Environmental Network (in a variety of languages). See also their Time for Creation dossier.
- Readings, sermons, songs and other liturgical resources are also available on the Australian website Season of Creation.
- Additional Season of Creation resources on the Seasons of the Spirit website
- Season of Creation resources by the Mid North Coast Uniting ecoministry in Australia
- Worship, teaching and prayer material by the Uniting Earthweb
- Prayers and liturgies, preaching and educational resources by the Canadian Green Church project (in English and French)
- Resource pack "The Life of Trees and the Tree of Life" by the Christian conservation organization A Rocha.
- "Dossier GLAM per il tempo del creato 2013" by the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (in Italian, pdf)
- See also the Ecumenical Water Network's reflections and resources from the Seven Weeks for Water.