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A young man casts a fishing net into the water of a polluted river around Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: Marcelo Schneider/WCC

A young man casts a fishing net into the water of a polluted river around Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: Marcelo Schneider/WCC

Global support continues to grow for the Season of Creation, an annual celebration of prayer and action to protect creation that is celebrated by tens of thousands of Christians of all traditions around the world.

Running from 1 September to 4 October, the Season of Creation’s beginning and end dates are linked with the concern for creation in the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity, respectively.

Plans are now underway to celebrate the Season of Creation during 2019 with the theme of “The Web of Life.”

The proposal to celebrate a "Time for Creation" during these five weeks was made by the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu in 2007. The following year, the World Council of Churches Central Committee invited churches to observe a "Time for Creation" through prayers and actions.

The first of September is observed as a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, proclaimed by Patriarch Dimitrios I for the Orthodox Church in 1989 and endorsed by Pope Francis in 2015. On 4 October, Roman Catholics and other churches from the Western traditions commemorate Francis of Assisi.

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (Roman Catholic Church) recently  extended an invitation to its constituency to join in celebrating the Season of Creation.

In a time of climate emergency, the celebration of Season of Creation can work as a spiritual grounding of our action to change the world to a more sustainable home for all forms of life that share the gift of life.

It is also a way of showing ecumenical unity in our efforts to lessen the ecological footprint of humanity by praying and acting together.

Season of Creation website

Learn more about the WCC work on Care for Creation and Climate Justice