The guide to Creation Time 2023, the description and ideas can be found on the Archdiocese website, but can also be viewed below.
Season of Creation 2023
In addition to recycling electrical items, there is a use for books no longer needed at home. Books In English or French – nursery, primary, secondary and university textbooks, dictionaries,
encyclopaedias, reference books, novels, hobby and leisure pursuits, Bibles, hymnals or religious books.
A full list can be found at https://books2africa.org/. They can be left in the porch or on the
doorstep of 58 Lincoln Close. You are welcome to come and help sort donations on Wednesday or Thursday 10 am – 1 pm at CareUK in the Riverside Retail Park (the former Laura Ashley shop).
Update 6th October 2022
On the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecologists and animals, the Social Justice Department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has launched a new edition
of its teaching document on the environment – The Call of Creation. The Call of Creation was first published two decades ago, in 2002, this new edition is released at the conclusion of
the Church’s month-long Season of Creation. The document calls for a “profound interior conversion” and for Catholics to “repair our relationship with God’s creation” to address the current
ecological crisis.
Writing in the foreword, Bishop John Arnold, Lead Bishop for the Environment, and Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the Social Justice department, say: “We are a people of hope who believe in
redemption. We must study the signs of the times and take the action that is needed to repair our relationship with God’s creation. As is made clear in The Call of Creation, the exercise of
the virtue of solidarity and the promotion of the common good, which are so needed at this time, are the responsibility of each and every individual and institution in society.”
You can read the updated Call of Creation on the Bishops Conference of England and Wales website here.
Update 29th September 2022
We have been kindly passed a copy of the Sustainable Living Guide which includes many examples of how we can change our habits of a lifetime from the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the
items we use in our homes. All of the advice is aimed at helping us to reduce our carbon footprint from small acts in our daily lives to larger or bigger changes which will make a world of
difference.
The Soil Association works as a charity and has been working on sustainability for 75 years. You can read the document page by page or download the Living Guide from the link below.
Sustainable Living Advice from the Soil Association
The following prayer was published by Pope Francis as part of the Laudato Si encyclical. CAFOD have quoted this prayer, however, the prayer, and it's Creation Time implications, are central to
achieving our Creation Time objectives. Please feel free to use it in your own prayers for our future.
A prayer for our earth
All powerful God,
you are present in the universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with your peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty,
not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle,
for justice, love and peace.
Update 4th September 2022
Listening to the Voice of Creation on the lawn!
Thank you to all the bakers, helpers, and those who made donations, making Sunday morning a great success. We were able to catch up with each other while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee.
£80.43 was raised for Charities which Fr Gildea supports on behalf of our parishioners. As much as possible we support Fairtrade products.
In keeping with "Season of Creation" the table decorations were garden flowers, with no air miles, and logs borrowed from Fr Gildea's log pile, to stop them blowing over in the wind!
Thank you for your support and look out for more in the coming weeks.
Update 29th August 2022
As mentioned at Masses last weekend, we invite St Peter and St. Michael's Community, friends and family for tea and cakes on the church lawn after 11am Mass on Sunday 4th September 2022. We
are celebrating being together again and bringing awareness of the start of "Season of Creation" which is from 1st September until 4th October.
The theme for this year is "Listen to the Voice of Creation", a time when we are invited to join our ecumenical family around the world in prayer and action for our common home, the earth.
We have some bakers providing cakes. However all cake donations are welcome (with a list of ingredients please.)
We hope that parishioners will join us after Mass and enjoy refreshments together.
Update 3rd August 2022
The date for the St. Peter's School Eco Council is proposed for weekend of 24th / 25th September.
The link to the Eco Council page on St. Peter's School website, if anyone wishes to look for ideas, is here.
The objective of Creation Time is to call out to local leaders and communities to participate actively, by raising awareness of the theme to unite us all and call to care for our common home -
the earth. Towards this objective, we ask parishioners to think of their surroundings and nature. How can we encourage awareness and improve and maintain a better earth and our
climate?
Nature Photos
We ask, during August, parishioners to submit photos of nature, landscapes , holiday snaps ( views
only, no people on them) . Most appropriate / best ( 10 photos - 2 for each weekend ) will be used as the first and last slides used during weekend Masses with the name of
person or screen name - just like on the BBC weather forecast!
If enough images are submitted, then they can be different for Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
Submissions should be made to stpeterslivesimply@gmail.com in landscape or portrait format and on
a powerpoint slide if possible, but a jpeg file should also be fine on its own.
The Eco Council at school are already working towards this, so we are harnessing their energy and ideas to bring more awareness. In the Gallery below, there are three "nature" photos
for consideration for one of our "Creation Time Projects". These are:
Red-tailed bumble bee on a thistle, known for its distinctive black and red body, this social bee is important in pollination
Reflections on the Mersey at Woolston
New Thelwall Ferry boat - "Bonnie" - saving the carbon footprint!
The history of the ferry, and the times of operation, can be found here.
Background
In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch suggested that 1 September, the first day of the Orthodox Church's year, should be observed as a day "of protection of the natural environment". Ten years later
the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN) widened this proposal, urging churches to adopt a Time for Creation stretching from 1 September to the feast of St Francis on 4 October and
this was endorsed by the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, Romania in 2007, which recommended that the period "be dedicated to prayer for the protection of Creation and the promotion of
sustainable lifestyles that reverse our contribution to climate change".
The Roman Catholic Church has followed this initiative and its timings. Pope Francis’s encyclical ‘Laudato Si ‘ invites us to respect, care for, and protect creation and share with
God in its ongoing creation and renewal
Creation Time 2022
Creation Time is slated between 1st September and 4th October. A meeting has been held, and discussions held as to how best to support this year's initiative. Mary Hallam is supported
by Katy Lowrey and Val McCowen in driving this initiative but they welcome anyone else from the parish to attend and share their thoughts on the subject. As a parish we are planning
activities for the month of September. These are a few in the planning, more will follow:
4th September after Mass, Green Garden Party
Date to be decided- St Peter's School Eco Council will inspire parishioners with activities that they undertake in school to look after our world
Nature photos ( views only) submitted by parishioners, to be displayed, to promote looking after our world.
To end with Exposition of Blessed Sacrament
Updates will be posted regularly over the next few weeks as we gather more information and news about our plans.
You can watch the introduction to this years "Seasons of Creation" in the video below and follow the entire project at SeasonsofCreation.org
What is Creation
Time?
Pope Francis
issued a profound prayer intention that the planet’s resources will not be plundered, but shared in a just and respectful manner. He prays that today, not tomorrow, we will take care of
Creation. Pope Francis’ leadership on the climate emergency and on the coronavirus has been unmatched. But he can’t do it alone. It’s time for the global Catholic community to rally behind
his message.
If you haven't had a chance to have a look at the video and words about Creation Time, please do so as it is very interesting and a good place to start when thinking about prayer around
Creation and our relationship with Creation, our Environment and God.
During this
period each year we remember the gift of Creation and our relation to it. God made us stewards of the earth, this is something all of us try to live out in our daily
lives. This has come to
the forefront of our news over the past few years due to some incredible activists, such as Greta Thunberg.
As environmentalists, we might think about how to improve the state of our planet .This is important but not our starting point.
As Christians, we start with Christ. He is our redeemer, whose saving grace included releasing creation from it's decay and bondage. God created the world complete, but in a
state of journeying. God’s plan was from the beginning that Christ’s redemption was to bring us to eternal life and glory and also to bring creation to its final perfection. Thomas Keating
writes:
‘Christ who disappeared in his Ascension, not into some geographical location, but into the heart of all creation to infuse all of creation with the grace of his redemption.'
Redemption is personal, individual and cosmic. We cannot limit it to just our own souls. Humans have held the view that we were to use, even exploit the created world because we
were at the top, we were in charge. We are now aware of how destructive this is. Pope Francis reminds us of this error and calls us to care for the earth as if it was a person and to be aware of
the impact of our decisions on the earth and to carefully use its resources.
How do we live out Creation time?
We need knowledge, conversion and action. For action to be wise and sustainable it needs a good foundation. We need some understanding of the causes of climate change and the effects it has
on the poorest. It is the Mother of all injustices causing flooding and food shortages. It creates climatic refugees.
We also need to be aware of our carbon footprint. We then need to pray as to the small steps we can each take. The Buddhists say change is suffering; to change always goes against the grain
but God makes attractive what we at first find unattractive.
So prayer is necessary and what Pope Francis calls an ecological conversion. Of course it is a cyclic process.
The actions can be:
· Having
Green energy
· A
meat free day or 2
· Reduced
car use/ more walking and cycling
· Thinking
about reducing what we use, what we consume and where we travel to
· Fair-trade
These are few ideas. Making a start and keeping up small actions are what counts.