On the first weekend of the annual Season of Creation, Climate Sunday – a moveable Sunday during September – was marked by the first time in churches ecumenically across the UK and Ireland. At least 700 churches committed to climate-focused services to pray and explore the theological and scientific basis of creation care and of action on climate.
In Central London, the Farm Street Catholic Church joined with the Grosvenor Chapel to celebrate Creation outdoors in Mount Street Gardens. The Chapel Choir was warmly welcomed back after long months of restrictions amidst a “real spirit of hope and goodwill”. Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, parish priest at Farm Street and Chair of the Westminster Justice and Peace Commission, told The Tablet that it was the first such ecumenical service since lockdown and, “so important to share something really important with our churches and with the world”.
He reported that parishes throughout Westminster Diocese will be using the Cafod Novena for a world under threat between 26 September and 4 October. Diocesan schools have been invited to contribute to a Season of Creation video competition.
The Norwich Franciscans used Cafod’s prayer resources for the Season of Creation during their Climate Sunday gathering on 6 September. Rob Hardie from the Norwich Franciscan Fraternity explained that “we’ll discuss the science of Climate Change and the way of Saints Francis and Clare which centres around the sharing of resources, identifying with the poor and a total trust in God and Providence.” They also considered, “what Franciscans today, such as Richard Rohr, say about climate issues and how we can respond to this in our lives and communities.”
Bishop of Salford, Bishop John Arnold, the bishop responsible for the environment for the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, described Climate Sunday as “an excellent opportunity for Catholic parishes in England and Wales, as well as our ecumenical brothers and sisters, to understand responsibility to heal our planet and to pray and act in response to the climate emergency.”
The Anglican Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam, described the Climate Sunday as a “brilliant resource” to help parishes reach the target of zero emissions by 2030 and campaign for more government action. The Anglican Dioceses of Norwich and Oxford and St Asaph in Wales all marked the occasion. St Asaph launched a new bilingual booklet with ideas on how churches and congregations can make small changes to the way they live, work, shop and worship. Caring for Each Other; Caring for God’s Creation will be used to guide churches towards making changes which contribute to a fairer and more sustainable world. Christ Church in Cardiff produced a Climate Sunday podchurch service. The London Methodists marked Climate Sunday with a prayer for creation in its churches. A Baptist Union Environmental Network was launched last weekend.
Climate Sunday aims to provide a focus for churches across Britain and Ireland to pray and act on climate change. It has been organised by the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, supported by charities including Caford, Christian Aid, Tearfund, A Rocha UK, and Operation Noah. The culmination of the campaign will be a national Climate Sunday event in Glasgow on Sunday, 5 September 2021, to celebrate the commitments made by churches at local level over the previous year. The UK government will be presented with the combined commitments and calls which all local churches have made.
In a Pastoral Letter for the Season of Creation, the Bishop of Clogher said the Coronavirus pandemic has much in common with the environmental crisis. “It has certainly shown us how deeply connected everything is, how vulnerable we are as human beings and how fragile is our world. A small invisible virus has stopped the world, forced us to go into lockdown.” The Season of Creation this year offered people the opportunity to stop and think about the type of world they want to return to when the Coronavirus crisis has passed.
“As a human family, we cannot be healthy if the planet is not healthy,” he said. Noting Pope Francis’ designation of a special Laudato Si’ anniversary until May 2021, Bishop Duffy said the Pope had done this to remind all Catholics of the urgent need to take action in order to protect our common home. Human rights abuses, religious intolerance, discrimination, racism, the attacks on the life of the unborn and the denial of the right to life are “all part of what Pope Francis calls ‘colonising interests’ and ‘the throw-away culture’ underpinning our neglect of creation and the creator,” the bishop said.