{"id":8602,"date":"2024-09-04T12:10:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/?p=8602"},"modified":"2024-09-04T12:10:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:10:06","slug":"a-church-festival-to-celebrate-the-goodness-of-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/8602\/","title":{"rendered":"A Church Festival to Celebrate the Goodness of Creation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog post is written by Dr. Benjamin M. Stewart. Stewart is Distinguished Affiliate Professor of Worship at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and pastor to Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Two Harbors, Minnesota.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A view of Assisi the day before the Feast of Creation Ecumenical Seminar began in March 2024<\/p><\/div>\n

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With growing mainstream awareness of environmental crises, several experiments with a liturgical \u201cSeason of Creation\u201d have emerged. Now, a significant ecumenical movement is championing the inauguration of a liturgical \u201cFeast of Creation\u201d to be shared across Eastern and Western branches of Christianity. The possibility of the new festival is being discussed by church leadership in the major global denominations and is being considered for introduction as part of the commemoration of the 1700th<\/sup> anniversary of the Council of Nicea in 2025.<\/p>\n

The potential new feast would likely be associated with the time between September 1 and October 4, already observed by some as a season of creation. The dates have ecumenical significance: September 1 is the beginning of the Orthodox liturgical year, and in recent decades the date has become associated with care for creation among the Orthodox. It has even more recently been adopted as a day of prayer and action for creation by the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church \u2013 though usually without a liturgical celebration. October 4th<\/sup> is the commemoration of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most popular occasions on the church calendar associated with care for creation.<\/p>\n

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Photo of the in-person participants at the Feast of Creation Seminar in Assisi, March 2024<\/p><\/div>\n

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An ecumenical conference \u2013 with participation by LWF and ELCA theologians \u2013 convened in March 2024 in Assisi, Italy, to study the possibility of a new liturgical festival of creation. (A report designed for wide readership about the conference and next steps is available online here<\/a> as a PDF.)<\/p>\n

There was considerable enthusiasm at the Assisi conference for the new ecumenical festival. Some ongoing questions included:<\/p>\n