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Man in a flooded house

A man pours flood water out of his house during November 2014 flooding in Meulaboh in Indonesia's Aceh province. Flooding in the region has grown worse because of climate change and the proliferation of palm oil plantations. 

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The Season of Creation will open on 1 September while we are gathered at the WCC 11th Assembly for what will be an historic moment. What inspires you most when you think about this?

Dr Andrianos: It is a true blessing—but could be also a divine last call for ecological repentance to all churches that the Season of Creation opening coincides, for the first time, with the WCC assembly. I believe the triune God creator has planned this timely coincidence to reach the hearts of the thousands of participants at the assembly and especially to convince the assembly decision makers—the WCC governing body—to give urgent attention to the suffering creation that needs emergency reparation through our united ecological conversion practices for the next decade,



How does the theme for this years Season of Creation resonate with all of our lives?

Dr Andrianos: This year, the theme for the season is Listen to the Voice of Creation.” We are living in the Anthropocene era where all voices of creatures are muted” or neglected except those of the privileged powerful people. The burning bush, which was chosen as the symbol of the theme of the Season of Creation for 2022, among other meanings, reminds us that the Earth is ill” and human beings’ sins—greed and egoism—are the disease that provokes its burning fever.” We hear testimony every day—catastrophic wildfires and other calamities that are the screaming voices of the creation for immediate behavioral change of human beings—as a call to avoid the “boiling frog syndrome.”



What are your hopes for the WCC 11th Assembly?

Dr Andrianos: I hope this assembly will bring at least two concrete steps towards unity and spiritual revival in this time of uncertainties and fast-changing technology. First, I hope that church observers and guest participants will make bold decisions toward the unity of all churches in response to Jesuss call that all may be one and will walk together within the WCC to complete the ecumenical movement goals in solidarity of minds, souls, and body in Christ.

Second is that the assembly may convince many souls to reconcile with the Triune God  and the whole creation by paving new ways of living in metanoia and eco-justice for all in the immediate years to come: to see the fruits of a post-assembly ecological conversion in the daily lives of church members and in all WCC programmes.