An Adventure of Beauty and Grace

Where have you experienced oneness with creation? The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action for our common home.

The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action for our common home. Churches and communities across Australia and across the world celebrated the Season of Creation from 1 September, World Day of Prayer, until the feast of St Francis of Assisi on 4 October through liturgy, special events, video, forums, climate action, and sharing resources.

The Season of Creation unites the ecumenical family around the world to pray, protect, and advocate for God’s creation. In 2021 hundreds of thousands of Christians united around the theme, “A home for all? Renewing the Oikos of God.” One such action took place at Glenbrook Uniting Church in the Blue Mountains near Sydney.

snip of Ellie Their minister, Rev Ellie Elia invited people to share “Where have you experienced oneness with creation?” The result was a beautiful 30 minute video titled, An Adventure of Beauty and Grace, which is a montage of personal stories, powerful memories, stunning images and landscapes, and inspiring reflections on the here and now experience of people encountering creation.

We wanted to share this video on the Eremos website but it’s too large for our system to upload. Since it’s available on the Glenbrook UCA Facebook Page, we share their link for you to enjoy: https://www.facebook.com/glenbrookunitingchurch/videos/555350472399189

Please note that the Facebook link is for the entire service on 12 September as it was filmed during lockdown when there were no ‘in person’ worship services. You may wish to forward to 10.49 minutes for Ellie introducing the video. She invites us into the experience with a reading from John O’Donohue, excerpt below. The video begins at 15 minutes for the responses to the question “Where have you experienced oneness with creation?”

“When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery, you return to rhythm with yourself. When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you. Moments of beauty begin to braid your days. When your mind becomes more acquainted with reverence the light, grace, and elegance of beauty finds you more frequently. When the destination becomes gracious, the journey becomes an adventure of beauty.” --John O'Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

There is a multitude of information about the Season of Creation available online and here’s a just a few.

https://seasonofcreation.org/

https://www.ncca.org.au/ncca-newsletter/september-2021-1/item/2564-season-of-creation-2021091

https://uniting.church/season-of-creation-2021/

https://www.laudatosi.org/

Images used come from

https://anglicanalliance.org/a-jubilee-for-the-earth-season-of-creation-2020/

https://www.anglican.ca/publicwitness/season-of-creation/

Glenbrook Uniting Church Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=555350472399189