Season of Creation liturgical resource now available in perennial edition

Cover icon designed by Edith Adams Allison

Celebration Guide for Episcopal Parishes updated for Lectionary Years A, B, and C

In 2022, the Rev. John Elliott Lein (artist and priest in Downeast Maine) partnered with the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas (Creation Care leader in Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts) to assemble and present liturgical resources for this Season for the benefit of interested yet busy parish worship leaders. Year by year, contributions and diocesan endorsements have grown. Last year, the 2024 Season of Creation worship guide was authorized for use in 50 dioceses across The Episcopal Church.

For each Sunday and Holy Day in the Season, the Guide supplies a complete Proper with Collect, Readings for Track 1 and 2 with brief Creation notes, a set of alternate readings for the Second Lesson, and sermon prompts to get the preacher’s imagination running. Next, the Holy Eucharist and Daily Office liturgies are walked through step by step to suggest ways Creation might be more explicitly woven into celebration. Finally, the Resources section contains collects, prayers, and intercessions; litanies and penitential orders; songs of praise and canticles; affirmations of faith; Eucharistic prayers, including recommendations for the BCP and EOW selections and three additional prayers; readings for creation; quotes on creation; Prayers of the People, including recommendations on adapting or writing your own as well as prepared prayers; music for creation; and books and curriculums.

In our fourth edition, we have revised the Guide to work for every liturgical year going forward. “It has been a joy to gather, create, and pray these materials yearly,” Lein said, “yet now I believe it is time to release the project into the larger Church to pray, reform, and adapt. We hope this perennial edition will aid adoption and continue to grow as the Creator leads.” The new material in 2025 includes:

• The addition of Propers and planning suggestions for the six Holy Days in the Season.
• Propers for Years A, B, and C across the Years (six Propers each included as dates shift).
• Updated recommendations for the Additional Creation Readings to space them out over the Years.
• Updated resources for Year C (from our first edition) and unique Collects for every Proper, rooted in the BCP and revised with both the Gospel of the Day and Creation in mind.

The new resource may be downloaded at NewCreationLiturgies.org.

“I am particularly glad,” Bullitt-Jonas reflected, “to release this resource to the Church as a follow-up to Resolution D041, in which the 81st General Convention expressed support for the adoption of an ecumenical Feast Day of Creation in our liturgical calendar.” Season of Creation: A Celebration Guide for Episcopal Parishes is now a single, comprehensive resource available to the Church for a time such as this.