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Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC

Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC

As the world readies to observe the “Season of Creation” from 1 September to 4 October, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that people’s prayerful observations and determined actions are vital to addressing the current climate change emergency.

“We as Christians come together to pray and focus on the interconnectedness of God’s creation,” said Tveit. “We are all one."

The Season of Creation, celebrated by tens of thousands of Christians around the world, has a theme for 2019 of “The Web of Life.”

Season of Creation is the time for us to lament our losses and to find new hope and energy to act on the threats to the creation, our home, said Tveit. “The biodiversity of the creation is what feeds us and keep us alive. In these times we have to act as protectors and caretakers.”

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 WCC Central Committee invited churches to observe a "Time for Creation" through prayers and actions.

Reflecting and acting are a matter of justice, added Tveit. “It is the poor and marginalized who depend most immediately on the health of ecosystems and are affected most severely by the collapse of the natural systems that sustain all life,” he said. "The generations growing up today, the poor of the world, and the creation with all its multitude of life demands us to pray and act now.”

Celebration guide: Season of Creation 2019

Season of Creation website

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