Season of Creation 2019
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Deuteronomy 30: 19.
This year, Season of Creation begins on Sunday, October 6 at 7pm with a service of creation-focused music, sacred and secular readings and prayer. The Right Rev’d Andrew Asbil, Bishop of Toronto will be our guest preacher, reflecting on this year’s theme, How Shall We Then LIVE?
Throughout October, we’ll reflect deeply on our responses to this question. As Christians, we are people of hope, joy, love and reconciliation. How do the gospel message and the tenets of our faith help us to confront and to reconcile the profound existential issues of our time? During our morning liturgies, we’ll hear from The Rev’d Canon Steven Mackison, incumbent, on Living in Gratitude; Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat, adjunct professor Institute for Christian Studies, on Living in Reconciliation with Creation; and Nate Wall, Scholar-in-Residence, on Living in Wonder.
On Wednesday, October 16 at 7pm* Paul Pynkoski, a Redeemer parishioner, will present and lead, “Woods, Landscape, and City: The Prophetic Spirituality of Thomas Merton”.
On Sunday, October 20 at 10:45am*, between the morning services, WildOntario, our Church School and Youth will host an all ages event to experience birds of prey, up close!
On Wednesday, October 23 we’ll screen the award-winning documentary, RIVERBLUE, which portrays the global fashion industry’s impact on the planet. Lynda Young, a Redeemer parishioner, will host and lead a discussion on the implications of fashion consumerism. There will be two screenings at 2pm* and 7pm*.
*We ask that you register for these events so we have enough materials for all.
Throughout Season of Creation, we will also experience the All Beings Confluence, a unique art installation inspired by the music of Carolyn McDade. We will be hosts to a sampling of these beautiful painted silk panels, many of which have been seen around the world. The words of Carolyn McDade describe the intention of the All Beings Confluence:
…I often wonder what it would be like if we dared to love this life ~ the fragile and the vulnerable, the endangered, daring to be humble before the magnitude of our beginnings, daring to lean our species into a stubborn and pliant wonder, until reverence shines in all that we do ~ until we live an economics of reverence, a theology of reverence, a politics of reverence ~ until it permeates education, development, and health care, homes and relationships, arts and agriculture ~ a reverence for life, for planetary, social, and personal wholeness. (https://www.carolynmcdademusic.com/)
We encourage you to participate in the liturgies and events throughout Season of Creation, and to prayerfully consider what it would be like if we dared to love this life as if our very lives depended on it.
Season of Creation is hosted by Creation Matters, Redeemer’s eco-spirituality group. We meet monthly to centre ourselves in creation; to learn about and reflect on the state of the world in which we live; and to bring more awareness of creation into the life of the church.
