Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 

On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

Ezekiel is given this vision 25 years after the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem. The land is ravaged by war, the people now in exile in Babylon. The water flows out of the ruined temple, God’s presence flowing over the broken land, bringing healing. At first, it is a trickle, then ankle deep and finally deep and wide enough to swim in.

As disciples, we hear this vision fulfilled in Christ, the living water that becomes in us a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (John 4:10-14) and who offers us the living water that slakes our thirst for healing and justice in a broken world (John 7:37-39).

“The river grows deeper and deeper, restoring land, reviving waters and sustaining flourishing ecosystems,” says this year’s call to the Season of Creation. “The vision invites human responsibility: recognizing ecological damage, embracing interconnectedness, we are called to immerse ourselves in the water, actively safeguarding and working for the renewal of creation so that environmental healing and human well-being may flourish together.” The symbol for this year is staying immersed in the water that flows from the throne of God, stepping deeper and deeper, working together for the renewal of creation.

From his vantage point in the river, Ezekiel sees that along the banks are trees bearing fruit in all seasons, and whose leaves do not wither. This is divine blessing; creation is healed where the river flows and Ezekiel is restored to hope. John reprises this vision in his Revelation, where the river of the water of life flows from the throne of God through the astonishing tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:1-3).

Images of the riparian edge where river meets forest are common in scripture. People gather there for worship and lament. Think of the exiles weeping by the rivers, their harps hung up in the poplars, unable to sing (Psalm 137). Paul and Silas, released from prison, head to the riverbank where there is a place of prayer and meeting with the women there (Acts 16:13). The righteous are like trees planted by water, bearing fruit (Psalm 1:1-3; Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Walk along a riverbank or better yet, explore in a kayak from the water, and it is easy to see why. The so-called riparian zone between the river and the forest is a place of abundant life.  The roots of trees hold soil together and stabilize the bank. The rich soil nourished by the constant flow of water supports a greater diversity of plants, which feed and shelter amphibian and mammal life. Fish thrive in the cooler, shaded waters and turtles rest on fallen logs. The riverbank is a study in the interconnectedness of a healthy ecology.

The northern flank of our diocese lies within “the land between,” an ecologically significant transition zone between the Canadian Shield to the north and the flat, arable land of southern Ontario. It includes communities from Orillia all the way east to Campbellford and Havelock and has a high density of wetlands, lakes and rivers, rock barrens, alvars (rare limestone grasslands) and savannahs. The endangered five-lined skink, Ontario’s only lizard, and other rare reptiles and amphibians, all rely on the riparian edge. Climate change and human intervention deplete habitats at an alarming rate. Where there are cribbed and hardened shorelines, these creatures cannot survive; fish can no longer spawn and shorebirds cannot nest. It is encouraging to see municipalities promoting the restoration of riparian zones.

There is an urgent need for rewilding in a world where corporate logos are more familiar to children than the names of trees. Over the past 50 years, the decline in wildlife populations and the rate of species extinction are catastrophic. We know that where Indigenous and local communities have control of land, biodiversity increases.

The Rev. Laurel Dykstra, who leads the Salal and Cedar community in the Diocese of New Westminster, advocates for the rewilding of our church lands. “On a modest scale,” Laurel writes, “churches are local communities with control of land. And for the most part, the land that our churches control is a rectangle of grass, a patch of monoculture ­­­ready for rewilding.” A church with a creek flowing through can restore the riparian zone by introducing native plants and creating habitat. Churches in our diocese, including St. Hilary, Cooksville in Mississauga, are creating rain gardens and introducing native species and pollinator gardens.

But facing the ecological crisis means rewilding ourselves. Our environmental crisis is actually a human crisis, says theologian and fly fisher Derek Taylor in a recent article in Comment magazine. We need healing, which begins by recovering our creatureliness. “We treat the world as something other than creation, and we imagine ourselves to be something more than creatures. We have forgotten where we are and who we are.”

Remembering who we are begins with being immersed in creation as Ezekiel was. We are rewilded when we enter into communion with our Creator, with our kin in creation, with the suffering body of the earth. We find this communion in liturgy, in the garden, in wandering and wading together, knowing and tending the places where we live and serve and worship. Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally says, “In the season of creation we turn again to Christ… As we follow Christ, we are called to share in his reconciling work, seeking justice, healing and hope for the earth and for all who dwell within it.”

In our diocese, the Bishop’s Committee for Creation Care supports this creation-informed, Christ-centred discipleship with resources to help Anglicans “rewild” in celebrations of the Season of Creation and participation in the Communion Forest, a global movement for the restoration of habitat and planting trees. Where the river flows and the trees grow, creation flourishes.

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The Season of Creation is a global ecumenical movement that invites Christians to engage intentionally in action and prayer for God’s creation from Sept. 1, the Orthodox Day of Prayer for Creation, to Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Our diocese has officially observed the Season of Creation since it was adopted by General Synod in 2019, though individual parishes had begun celebrating it even earlier. The global Season of Creation website provides a scripture-based theme and related resources every year, but local churches are also encouraged to develop their own.

The Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care has produced several resources in keeping with this year’s theme of “Living Water.” The Rev. Adrienne Clements has offered a liturgy used at St. Hilary, Cooksville last fall for the dedication of a rain garden. The Rev. Andrew Kuhl, of the parish of Craighurst and Midhurst, has created a watershed mapping exercise that invites parishioners into a deeper understanding of their local watershed and its challenges. The Rev. Dr. Alison Kemper has gathered prayer resources on the theme of water, while I have collected advocacy and action ideas for parishes and individuals to help protect water in our communities and beyond. The Rev. Canon Susan Spicer, co-chair of the committee, offers a theological reflection tying together the theme of “Living Water” and the flourishing of creation, which is the goal of the Anglican Communion Forest. All these resources can be found on our diocesan website.

In March 2024, church leaders from around the globe met in Assisi, Italy to explore establishing a new feast in the Western Church calendar to celebrate God’s original and ongoing acts of creation. In 2025, General Synod, along with other church bodies around the world, adopted the Feast of the Creator to be held on Sept. 1 or another date during the Season of Creation. This spring, Council of General Synod approved a trial use liturgy to be used for this feast. Readings for the feast have also been added to the Revised Common Lectionary.

As the Rev. Dr. Rachel Mash, coordinator of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, explains, the Feast of the Creator (or Feast of Creation in Christ, as it is also known) is not simply a “Christian Earth Day.” Rather, it has deep roots in the theological understanding of the Triune God as Creator, and specifically of Christ’s role as the one “through whom all things were made” and in whom “all things are held together.” The Feast of the Creator thus takes its place among the other Christological feasts of the church year, lifting up the role of Christ in creation.

The Feast of the Creator reminds us, in the words of Wendell Berry, that “our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy.” As we observe it, and the Season of Creation, this year, may we be drawn deeper into God’s love and care for all his creatures, including the waters which give us life.

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Maybe you would start with your church building, then think about the other gathering points in your neighbourhood. Maybe you would think about where people eat or drink, or where they work and live. Maybe you would think about where they shop or access services, or where they go for recreation and fun. Maybe you would even think about the transportation networks or hubs.

The gift of thinking about the parish as a fundamental unit in Anglicanism is that we have a particular place that focuses our ministry, How we live, work, love and worship can be shaped around the needs of that neighbourhood. Those realities of our neighbourhood of course connect beyond our parish to our deaneries, diocese and beyond, and they allow a tangible point of ministry for one another as Anglicans.

But what happens if you think beyond the human frame of reference and consider an ecological view? What is the story of the landscape and ecosystem in your parish? What are its defining characteristics? What would you put on a map as key features for the plants and wildlife? Or for the rivers and hills?

One good starting point is to use a watershed approach to understanding your local ecological neighbourhood. A watershed is simply a geographic area where all water in that area flows through a shared body of water. It might be a creek or a river, it could be a lake or a marsh, it might be bigger than your parish or you might find a particular sub-watershed that you are connected to.

For example, I live in a community that has two sub-watersheds, the Willow Creek and Mattheson Creek sub-watersheds. These creeks shape our village and provide wonderful places for walking and hiking. They eventually connect with the Nottawasaga River through the Minesing Wetlands, and the Nottawasaga River continues to Lake Huron at Wasaga Beach. The Great Lakes watershed connects us together as a diocese eventually to the St. Lawrence River and the rest of the waters of the world.

From there you can discover the network of neighbours that live, work, love and worship within your ecological neighbourhood. The waters that you share connect you together, the way the waterbodies gather the water shapes a great web of connection.

Just imagine for a second what happens to water if you were able to follow it along its journey in your watershed – where your wastewater goes and is managed, to what happens from your garden, lawns or fields, even where the water from the baptismal font is emptied, is all gathered into your local watershed. Think about where your drinking water comes from. If you live with a well, you are probably more aware of the ground water around you.

When we consider that way of looking at our parish, it invites us to attend and care for the relationships that we have or forget that we have. It invites us to envision the active presence of God sustaining and renewing creation. As Psalm 104:30 says, “When you send forth your spirit, they are renewed.” And it asks us how we participate in life with and care for all the beings (human and non-human) in the bounds of our parish.

This Season of Creation with the theme of “Living Waters,” you are invited to map your watershed and discover what you and your parish know about your ecological parish. The resource is a simple set of questions to discover week after week and create a growing map that you could use as a station near the entrance to worship, or over coffee hour. All it takes is a map of your community, a few simple supplies and a willingness to play and create together. You could run it as a workshop all in one day or add a walk or an exploration into your plans. Hopefully it will inspire you to think about those relationships in your watershed and discover again where God is at work in your parish and in creation. And then ask yourselves what you want to do to care for your community.

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The service was put together by St. Paul’s incumbent, the Rev. Andrew Kuhl, in consultation with members of the bishop’s committee. The liturgy drew on diverse sources from around the Anglican Communion. There was a litany for the preservation of the environment from the Anglican Church of Kenya, a prayer of confession from The Episcopal Church, an absolution from Alongside Hope’s Season of Creation liturgy, and a Eucharistic prayer from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil.

Continuing with the Communion-wide theme, Mr. Kuhl’s sermon was organized around the three mission statements of the Communion Forest initiative: “To plant is to hope; to restore is to heal; to protect is to love.” For each statement, he gave examples of forest regeneration, restoration and ecosystem protection in Ontario, some of which were within the parish itself. One of these examples was the work of the local Copeland Forest Friends Association, which helps to manage the largest tract of forest in Ontario south of Algonquin Park, removing invasive species, restoring the natural flow of streams, and clearing debris from this spring’s devastating ice storm. Members of the association were in the congregation

“A forest is not just a collection of trees in a certain geographical space, but a complex web of interdependent relationships for mutual flourishing – a web which includes us,” Mr. Kuhl remarked. He noted that the Bible recognizes the agency of the non-human creation. Not only do we care for forests and other ecosystems, but they also care for us in their turn, providing fresh air, clean water, food, medicine, shelter, and, not least, places of recreation and contemplation.

In Isaiah 32:14-18, this year’s text for the global Season of Creation, the judgement that comes upon Israel is a “re-wilding”: the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted, and the hill and watchtower become dens for wildlife, the joy of wild asses and a pasture for flocks. When God’s spirit is poured out, “the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest” where justice and righteousness dwell.

“Through the Spirit of God, people learn to live in right relationship with all creation,” observed Mr. Kuhl, recalling that God’s love and salvation in Christ is for the entire cosmos. Challenging us to take up the call of the Communion Forest initiative, he noted that “hope begins here and now with the actions of our lives. What is God calling you and your parish to do, to participate in God’s great love for the world?”

The theme of a “forest web” was illustrated in the service as participants brought leaves, branches, flowers and acorns from forested areas near their homes and hung them on a large fishnet suspended on the wall of the church. The fishnet also evoked the imagery of our diocese’s Cast the Net vision. Just like an ecosystem, our diocese itself is a complex web of relationships for mutual flourishing, and care for creation, along with spiritual renewal and reimagining ministry, is part of that vision for our Church’s flourishing.

The image of a web, rather than a wheel with spokes emanating from a central hub, also reminds us of how churches in the various parts of our diocese have much to offer and learn from each other in many respects, including in terms of creation care.

“Last year we were invited by some clergy to consider celebrating the Season of Creation outside downtown Toronto,” said the Rev. Paige Souter, co-chair of the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care. “While we wanted to have our inaugural service at St. James’ Cathedral, we wanted to invite other parishes to host the diocesan celebration going forward. It was a delight to have Fr. Andrew Kuhl welcome us to Midhurst for this year’s celebration.”

The service concluded with announcements about other deanery events and the diocesan outreach conference, which included a workshop on the Communion Forest initiative. Participants also had an opportunity to enjoy refreshments and conversation in the hall after the service.

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This is a spirituality that is rooted in prayer for and with creation. It is in prayer that we begin to truly understand the reality that all life is interconnected. We know this intellectually and scientifically, but often the spirituality of knowing this is true is missing.

Do you recall the first time that you felt connected to the Earth? It may have been when you were young, or it may have been during your adult life. You may have been gardening, on a hike, watching the clouds, canoeing, sitting on a beach, swimming in the ocean, having a picnic, sitting under a tree or looking out of a window into nature.

That experience was a spiritual connection of kinship – the web of belonging that defines life on the planet.

Praying for and with creation changes how we understand our relationship with God, with nature and with each other. As John Philip Newell writes in his book Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, it is time to reawaken “to what we know in the depts of our being, that the earth is sacred and that this sacredness is at the heart of every human being and life form. To awaken again to this deep knowing is to be transformed in the ways we choose to live and relate and act.”

This awakening requires restoring humanity’s broken relationship with nature. This is the theme of this year’s ecumenical Season of Creation, “Peace with Creation.” Rooted in Isaiah 32:14, this worldwide movement invites us to see the war that humanity has ravaged on the planet, both on nature and on the most marginalized who bear the brunt of the devastation. And it invites us to work to build peace with creation.

Achieving God’s deep shalom requires praying for the healing of the planet and learning to pray with creation, for it is in praying with creation that we learn to hear God’s heartbeat in nature and are transformed by the experience.

To pray with creation is to become aware that we are not separate from nature; rather we are its kin. We come to know spiritually that we are integrally woven together, and in that knowing we discover the fullness of our humanity. To pray with creation means we seek to deepen our connections with the Earth and to hear deeply both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. Lastly, in praying with creation we are drawn deeper into God and God’s reality.

I would like to offer the words of an embodied prayer with creation that has been part of my spiritual practice for close to 30 years. (The source of this prayer has long left my memory.) While the physical movements are too challenging to explain here, imagine one’s legs as tree roots and one’s arms as swaying branches.

Let us pray.

Standing like a tree with my roots dug deep
Branches wide and open
Down comes the rain
Down comes the sun
Down come the love to the heart that is open to be
Standing like a tree
(repeat, repeat, repeat, and give thanks)
Amen.

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Do you have a tree story? Perhaps a favourite tree from your childhood home or at the cottage? Maybe you’ve seen the mighty coastal redwoods of British Columbia or stood among the old-growth pines of Temagami and experienced awe. Something in us wants to preserve and protect these trees, to build and nourish our forests. Listening to this desire, the Anglican Communion is writing a new story in our relationship with trees.

Building on previous creation care work, the 2022 Lambeth Conference launched the Communion Forest. This is a worldwide initiative “to join together in tree growing and ecosystem conservation, protection and restoration throughout the world.” It is a thoughtful response to our Communion’s fifth mark of mission: “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the Earth.” When you think about it, isn’t this one of our deep desires? Don’t we want to pass on a beautiful planet to those who follow us, for generations to come?

This is the desire of the church in Uganda as it works on tree-planting and making churches plastic-free. It is the desire of the church in Ethiopia as it works on reforestation and soil conservation. It is the desire of the church in Kenya as it works with partners to sequester carbon through tree-planting. It is the desire of the Rev. Dr. Rodrigo Espiuca, an Anglican priest and environmental and human rights lawyer from Brazil who, with support from Alongside Hope (formerly PWRDF), has been appointed facilitator in the Americas for the Communion Forest initiative.

If you share the desire to safeguard the integrity of the Earth, the members of the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care echo and amplify Bishop Andrew and Mary Asbil’s invitation to join in. We are launching the Communion Forest initiative in our diocese this September as part of the Season of Creation. We may not be able to grow a new forest, but there are so many ways to get involved:

• Grow a tree to mark an important occasion.
• Work with the cemetery committee to increase the tree canopy.
• Create a small pollinator garden at your church.
• Partner with others on a local conservation project.
• Increase awareness by holding hiking church.
• Advocate for habitat conservation in your area.

The Season of Creation will kick off on Sept. 1 with a new blessing: this year, General Synod adopted the Feast of the Creator as a major feast in our liturgical calendar. This celebration is in line with our call to be good stewards of what our Creator has provided.

To learn more about creation care and the Communion Forest, visit www.toronto.anglican.ca/creationcare. You’ll find a plethora of resources to support you and your community on the disciple’s path of creation care. The very trees themselves may “clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12) at our efforts.

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Too many of the world’s forests are coming down, and the Earth is heating up. The great old growth giants who sequester carbon and act as the lungs of the Earth are falling faster than the minutes of our lives. As carbon dioxide grows in our atmosphere, we find ourselves in deeper trouble. Canada uses more than its fair share of the global carbon budget, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, and we are disproportionately responsible for the climate crisis. It is alarming to see how political and economic chaos in North America is eroding any commitment we had to mitigating the crisis.

Our leaders are not going to fix this for us. We need to get our hands into the soil and do the work that God calls us to do. Our primal vocation given to us in our sacred story is to cultivate and care for creation so that all life can flourish. The renowned botanist and tree-planting advocate Diana Beresford-Kroeger says, “without the global forest there is no hope for humanity’s future on Earth. We must reclaim the interconnection between trees and humanity. If we strengthen those connections by planting trees, interacting with our forests and protecting natural spaces, we can pause climate change long enough to have a fighting chance to mend our destructive ways.” And she has a plan: every single person needs to plant at least one tree a year.

Planting trees – along with protecting existing natural spaces – is the goal of the Communion Forest movement. In a letter to the diocese, Bishop Andrew and Mary Asbil write, “The call from the Anglican Communion to participate in the global Communion Forest … builds on the foundation of the ministry of creation care already established through the Communion and our fifth mark of mission: to safeguard the integrity of creation and renew life on Earth.” Joining this movement is the focus of the Season of Creation in our diocese this year.

“It’s not just about planting,” say the Asbils, “it is about turning to our knowledge keepers, scientists and theologians to understand how to be better caretakers of our planet.”

One of those knowledgeable people is Guinevere Kern, who is a registered horticultural therapist, educator and advocate for integrating horticulture principles and practices that support health initiatives. In a recent interview, Ms. Kern said that despite increasing public awareness of the importance of planting trees in urban environments, many trees planted with the best intentions do not survive beyond a few years, often due to preventable factors.

Planting trees begins with knowing the space and then choosing the right species, or “the right plant for the right place,” she says. “What is the growth habit of this tree? Is it conducive to the space over a short, medium or long term? What urban stress factors are part of this location? What care might this tree need to support long term health?”

She is passionate about increasing nature literacy – encouraging people to get close to nature, to know the ecosystem where they live, as well as native species and how they interact in the spaces where we live, work and worship.

Knowing and connecting to nature can increase our commitment to care for and rebuild healthy natural spaces. This connectedness not only heals the Earth; it heals us. “The data is clear: there are tangible health benefits to engaging with plant material in biophilic environments,” she says. “Having our hands in the soil and engaging with plant life reduces stress, enhances our mood and renews a sense of purpose. It also exposes us to the intricate and marvelous web of life and the threads of interconnectedness that bind life together.”

Being a part of the Communion Forest movement is a way for us as Church to express our commitment to justice and community. For example, an urban church where there is little canopy to mitigate summer heat might nurture a grove of trees to provide shade and a resting space for neighbours.

“Planting trees can go beyond an altruistic, one-time deed; it can play an ongoing role in supporting multispecies health and communal wellbeing,” says Ms. Kern. “Through proper tree planting preparation and planting techniques, native species selection, long term site-specific maintenance considerations and habitat restoration, we are invited to come into greater knowing and care for local dynamic ecosystems that uphold an abundance of life. Learning about the places and spaces where tree plantings occur can open pathways to reciprocal relationship and ethical land stewardship. To me, it’s an invitation to better participate in our obligations to creation and one another as Treaty people.”

When we look at this work through the lens of community involvement, what we are really doing is co-creating space with the Creator and all creatures in creation. We’re learning to think differently about the spaces God has given to us to care for and to cultivate.

Joining the Communion Forest movement can help us embody our faith as we learn to care for and cultivate the forest of trees that will be for the healing of the nations. As the book of Proverbs says, “Wisdom is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.” (3:18 NIV)

To learn more about Guinevere Kern’s work, visit www.guineverekern.com.

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Five years ago, the spongy moths invaded our forests and ate through the trees until the dust settled. The moths, whose usual appetite was oak, were so invasive that they digested the coniferous trees on our property as well – the hemlock, spruce and pine.

This was the first personal moment for me when I felt heartsick and helpless to save trees I have known since birth. I had taken them for granted.

Two years later, at the 2022 Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Communion put forth a call to action on the environment and sustainable development with specific requests, including: “Join in the Communion Forest initiative, to protect and restore forests and other ecosystems across our planet, and commit to promoting tree growing at the time of confirmation and other key life and faith moments, as a symbol of spiritual growth.” (4.1.5)

The call was overwhelmingly accepted. The initiative was blessed and supported by clergy and laity from around the world on the grounds of Lambeth Palace, and a tree was planted. As a stark reminder of the environmental crisis around us, the grounds and gardens of the palace surrounding the tree were brown and dry, resulting from 40C weather, a summer of intense heat that resulted in wildfires raging across the land and around the world.

I was moved by the call, its hope for our present and future – a movement of Anglicans that had the potential to transform the world through prayer, faith and action. One affirmation of the call particularly spoke to me:

“Humanity needs a spiritual and cultural transformation. We must see the world differently: repenting of and rejecting an extractive worldview, which regards the earth and all nature as something to be exploited, and embracing instead a relational worldview, at the heart of Christ’s teaching. This is espoused especially by Indigenous peoples, who see the profound interdependence of all creation.” (3.3)

I love our homeland, our trees, our wetlands, our ecosystems. And I love how our Church moves into action for the most vulnerable and unprotected. For the past three years, dioceses, provinces and local churches around the world, including three Ontario dioceses – Niagara, Ontario and Ottawa – have committed to encouraging parishes to develop activities that support and sustain tree growing and ecosystem conservation.

Since January, the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care and I have engaged wholeheartedly in conversations about joining the Communion Forest movement here in our diocese. Once a seed is planted, it is amazing to see how it matures into a beautiful sprout. Nature takes its course, but it needs the sustaining support and love of a community to help it grow.

A small sub-committee has sprouted to encourage further conversations and interest in feeding and tending to this movement through our local churches, parishes and deaneries. There is a groundswell of anticipation of how we can support the biodiversity of not just our church lands but our communities, of how we can partner with other Anglican provinces across the world to support reforestation, protection and preservation of all ecosystems.

It doesn’t take a long walk around your own neighbourhood to see the effects of human-caused climate change. As a Church, we lead by example; we gather our resources to support and provide for our communities. When we tend our own grounds, we provide shade and food.  When we tend our communities, we provide love. We are called to be caretakers of God’s garden, and I have faith in this spiritual call to all of us to share in this ministry, one seed at a time.

Information about the Communion Forest in the Diocese of Toronto in time for parish preparations for the Season of Creation, to be held Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, will be posted on the Creation Care page of the diocese’s website, www.toronto.anglican.ca.

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The Season of Creation encourages Christians around the world to observe the period between Sept. 1 (the World Day of Prayer for Creation) and Oct. 4 (the feast of St. Francis of Assisi) as a time of particular prayer for the Earth. In 2019, General Synod passed a resolution adopting the Season of Creation in the Anglican Church of Canada and encouraging dioceses and parishes to participate.

Organized by the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care, the service featured a mix of musical styles, from traditional choral arrangements to an Indigenous mass setting, led by musicians from Redeemer, Bloor St. Along with readings from scripture, the congregation heard “Remember,” a poem by Joy Harjo, the United States’ first Indigenous poet laureate. Bishop Andrew Asbil presided.

As the service got underway, three teenagers – Joaquin and Mikhail Getfield Francis of Holy Trinity, Thornhill and Gregory Conliffe of St. Martin in-the-Fields – shared stories of times they’ve connected with God through creation, as well as their thoughts about the role the Church might play in addressing the climate crisis.

“When it comes to the concerns of the planet, the Church needs to promote more peace,” one of the young people said. “To try and make sure that peace will be contagious and will be granted throughout the world.”

To reflect the many watersheds of the diocese, worshippers were invited to bring water from their local watershed to pour into a font during the service. Elder Laverne Malcom then blessed the mingled water in Anishnawbemowin and offered a prayer drum song.

In her sermon, the Rev. Susan Spicer, co-chair of the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care, acknowledged the need to mourn the forest fires, droughts, catastrophic floods and heat waves that are ravaging God’s creation.

“I expect that many of us are grieving for what has been lost – the places we once loved where creation no longer flourishes as we knew it,” she said. “This, we know, is a spiritual crisis. And unless we can grieve for our planet, we cannot love and serve it.”

The path from grief to joy travels through lament to hope and action, she said. “The spiritual practice of communal lament helps us name what has been lost. It keeps us mindful of the suffering we encounter daily. It assures us that we are not alone in our grief. The prophets of Israel taught us to lament – lament the desolation of the world – and yet allow it to lead us to hope.”

The hope we are called to, she continued, is rooted in the biblical vision of a new creation and leads us to action, inspired by our sacred story. “Prayer transforms hope into action. It empowers us to do the work that Jesus did, of tending and protecting and loving and serving all our kin,” she said.

She reflected on the stories of Anglicans across the diocese who are responding to the climate crisis with compassion and creativity by planting pollinator gardens, growing fresh produce for food banks, greening their buildings, hosting repair cafés, advocating with local politicians and providing Christ-centred climate education.

“We say our prayers every day, and then we enter the world that waits on our doorstep, going out to serve, to do what we can, knowing that the Spirit is with us, empowering us to bring the healing, transforming love of our creation to our neighbours and our kin in this wounded and still wondrous world,” she said.

The diocesan Season of Creation celebrations continued with Hiking Church events in Mississauga, west Toronto, Peterborough and Nottawasaga. These events combine walking and worship in creation, often including gathering songs and prayers and a Eucharist celebrated outdoors.

More information and resources on creation care in the diocese are available at www.toronto.anglican.ca/creationcare.

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