This year, during the Season of Creation, First Congregational United Church of Christ in Albuquerque, NM dedicated an entire month of Sundays to exploring the sacred relationship between faith and the environment. Guided by the Green Justice Team, our congregation entered into a time of reflection, reverence, and renewal, celebrating the beauty of God’s creation while acknowledging the urgent call to care for it and the extinction crisis.
Throughout the month, our worship services focused on different aspects of the natural world, each one revealing new layers of spiritual meaning and ecological awareness. We began by meditating on the desert, a landscape that holds both scarcity and promise. In the dry and rugged places, we were reminded of God’s power to bring renewal, just as rain revives the parched earth. From there, we turned our attention to the trees, ancient and steadfast witnesses to God’s creation. As some of the oldest and most significant of Earth’s companions, trees invited us to consider our own rootedness in God’s love and our responsibility to nurture life wherever we are planted.
The following Sunday, we lifted up the world of insects, those small yet vital creatures whose existence sustains so much of life on Earth. We reflected on the precarious position many species find themselves in today as part of the ongoing mass extinction of the Anthropocene, and we lamented the harm that human activity has brought upon God’s intricate web of life. Yet even in lament, we found hope and renewed commitment to live more gently upon the Earth.
Our attention then turned to the oceans, whose vastness reflects both the mystery and the interconnectedness of all life. In contemplating the sea, we were reminded of the depth of God’s creation and of our shared responsibility to protect and preserve its life-giving waters. Finally, we ended our Season of Creation series with a celebration of birds, creatures whose songs and soaring flight have long inspired humanity. Their ability to traverse boundaries and migrate across great distances offered us a vision of hope and transformation, encouraging us to live in harmony with creation and one another.
Throughout this Season of Creation, worship became a space of awareness, gratitude, and hope. Scripture, prayer, music, and preaching invited us to see the world not as a collection of resources to be used, but as a sacred community to be cherished and protected. This season reminded us that climate action is not only a moral imperative but also a deeply spiritual one. Together, we rediscovered that caring for the Earth is an act of faith, a reflection of our love for God, for our neighbors, and for all living things.