To observe the Season of Creation and at the vigil of the Assisi Ecumenical Prayer for Creation entitled “Walking together to COP24” (August 31–September 1, 2018) the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) are calling Christians and their communities to pray and care for creation. The two organizations have released a joint video featuring a message from CEC President Rev. Christian Krieger, Pastor of the Reformed Protestant Church of Alsace and Lorraine, and from CCEE President Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa.
The Season of Creation is observed from September 1 to October 4, 2018, around the world and is linked to the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity. September 1 was proclaimed as a day of prayer for the environment by the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989. In 2015, Pope Francis established for the Catholics the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on the September 1.
“As the environmental crises deepen and its consequences for the most vulnerable of our brother and sisters in humanity progressively appear, Christians are called to witness, in word, in action and in prayer, their faith in God as Creator,” said Rev. Kreiger. “The “Season of Creation is for the Christian family, beyond all denominations, an opportunity to celebrate together God as Creator, to express our common gratitude for the gift of all life, to bring to God our sorrow for the defacing overuse of our environment and natural resources, to become aware of our responsibility toward all humans and toward creation, and to commit ourselves to action. To deepen our relationship with God, we have to deepen our relationship to each other and to all creation.”
“Environmental ecology demands an integral ecology, that is to say, a human ecology, too, respect for the dignity of every human being, of life and all that stems from that, life from its beginning at conception right up to natural death – yes all are part of this commitment to integral ecology,” said Cardinal Bagnasco. “On this point, all Christians – and therefore the Assisi meeting is particularly expressive and significant – find themselves in the light of the same faith and the same responsibility. Together, naturally, with all people of goodwill throughout the world, because to speak and look with love and to care for the human person, peoples, nations within a universal context, appropriate ecology is certainly part of the universal responsibility of the whole of humanity.
