Season of Creation

This year’s theme: Let Justice and Peace Flow 

The Prophet Amos cries out: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream!” (Amos 5: 24) and so we are called to join the river of justice and peace, to take up climate and ecological justice, and to speak out with and for communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity.

Our prayers, sermons and liturgies must call for justice not only for humans but for all creation. Justice, allied with peace, calls us to repent of our ecological sins and to change our attitudes and actions. Righteousness demands that we live in peace, not conflict with our human neighbours, and building right relationships with all of creation. ‘Peace’ involves not only the absence of con- flict but positive, life-giving relationships with God, ourselves, our human neighbours, and all creation. We are invited to join the river of justice and peace on behalf of all Creation and to converge our individual identities, of name, family or faith community, in this greater movement for justice, just like tribu- taries come together to form a mighty river.

As the people of God, we must work together on behalf of all Creation, as part of that mighty river of peace and justice. This year’s symbol: The Prophet Isaiah proclaims: “Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43: 19). Biodiversity is being lost at a rate not seen since the last mass extinction. The hope of keeping the average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius is fading. The world which humans have known, enjoyed, and celebrated is changing rapidly beyond repair. The futures of young people are threatened by the cascading impacts of the loss of biodiversity and a changing climate. Industrialization, colonisation and the extraction and consumption of resources have created great wealth, unequally distributed.