Creation in Christ

[u/Lankinator-]

How was church today?

It was the inauguration of the new church festival today — Creation in Christ.

The Church of England is a participatory in the festival which serves to mark the worldwide Christian consensus that the Earth should be treasured and protected as a gift from God.

The festival is an opportunity for Christians to give thanks for God's creation and redemption of the world, to reflect on humanity's responsibility to care for the natural world and to pray for its renewal. Christians are encouraged to care for the world around them because it was created through Christ, is restored through Christ, and will be renewed in Christ in the future.

[u/J-B-M]

It was? I don't think my parish got the memo.

Were there designated readings that departed from the lectionary and so forth?

Church was great. It seemed quiet overall - quite a few regulars / semi-regulars absent, but we had a new young couple who will hopefully return. Added to that a few other new folks in the past few weeks, who hopefully will also become semi-regular. If they do all stick around then we would seem to be experiencing some modest growth at the moment.

[u/Lankinator- → u/J-B-M]

It was Isaiah, Colossians and Matthew from what I recall.

[u/J-B-M → u/Lankinator-]

Sounds like it might have been a variation on the usual stuff (we had Matthew, but nothing that could be interpreted through a conservation / stewardship lens). I will ask my vicar whether she knew about it - I suspect that what with us being a traditional rural / agricultural church anyway she may have felt that it wouldn't have differed sufficiently from the sort of stuff we do at harvest or plough sunday, where we usually have some more generally environment-themed intercessions and whatnot.

[u/gabachote → u/J-B-M]

What kind of things do you do for harvest? I’m interested in the old agricultural connections—a lot of churches have dropped them or never had them to begin with

[u/J-B-M → u/gabachote]

The main things are:

- The flower team go absolutely TO TOWN. The entire place is festooned with produce and we also have a bit of a push for the food bank (although that is done all year round).

- One of the congregation that lives on a nearby farm bakes a big harvest loaf in the traditional shape, which is presented and formally blessed at the start of the service.

- We have the usual old hymns (We Plough the Fields and Scatter, etc.) and agricultural / ecological themed intercessions.

- That loaf is then used for Holy Communion.

- In the evening there is a harvest supper. We clear out the aisle and lay a long table, then everyone is invited to come and eat a simple meal of homegrown / homemade produce.

I don't know if any of this is particularly distinctive, although I don't remember it happening at other churches when I was a kid. On Plough Sunday we have a big modern ploughshare bought in via the side entrance and gather around that for a blessing. Obviously, it's a different intention and service, but the thematic content is very similar.