The bees are abuzz. The courtyard is filling with flowers. Further afield, bushfire season has already begun. Whatever the calendar may say, Spring is upon us, ready or not.
For an increasing number of churches around Australia, September is celebrated liturgically as the Season of Creation, a month in which to focus our worship, prayer and learning around the realities of life as a creature on a living planet. Having and being a body, dependence upon the web of life, receiving rain and sunshine from the Creator and Sustainer of life, living as an animal with other animals: themes like these are of perennial importance and yet too often have been neglected by the church as aspects of our discipleship. Today, they take on an added urgency and resonance in a wounded and warming world of falling forests, disappearing birdsong, plasticised oceans and eroding soils.
So throughout September we’ll be exploring not just how to be a creature caring for other creatures, but asking “what does following Christ amidst ecological crisis look like?”. We’ll welcome three visiting speakers with expertise in this field as well as hearing from our assistant pastor Byron.
- Sept 9th – Dr Miriam Pepper on ‘humanity’ (AM Service = Long Black)
- Sept 16th – Ben Thurley on ‘mountains’ (AM Service = Flat White)
- Sept 23rd – Dr Byron Smith on ‘oceans’ (AM Service = Mocha)
- Sept 30th – Jessica Morthorpe on ‘animals’ (AM Service = Flat White)
In addition to our regular Sunday services, we’ll also be hosting opportunities to take the season deeper and wider via:
• a film night viewing a recently released documentary (8-9.30pm, Thu 13th Sept)
• an online eco-theology/eco-justice conference, titled Hope in Action (4-5.30pm, Sun 23rd Sept), and
• a chance to engage the local community with a workshop learning how to make beeswax wraps, using wax from our hive onsite (2pm-4pm, Sun 30th Sept).