Creationtide 2025 – Peace with Creation through Local Action

Each year from 1 September to 4 October, churches across the world mark Creationtide (also called the Season of Creation). This is the time in the church calendar dedicated to God as creator and sustainer of all life, and is a yearly invitation to renew our shared commitment to caring for the earth entrusted to us.

The theme for 2025 is Peace with Creation. In the biblical text for this year (Isaiah 32:14–18), we are reminded of the devastation caused by destructive human behaviour and a broken relationship with God. Yet, Isaiah also offers a vision of hope: through God’s justice and righteousness, desolate lands are renewed, peace is restored, and creation flourishes once more.

Peace with creation does not come through passivity, but through change – through turning away from our destructive behaviours that damage the earth and fuel climate and nature breakdown. Though prayer, repentance and spirit-led action, we can take steps towards reconciliation and God’s vision for creation.

Creationtide reminds us that though the environmental crisis can feel overwhelming, we are not alone. Across the globe, Christians join together in prayer and action- each community doing what they can in their own corner of the globe and raising a prophetic voice to call others to protect our common home.

Here in our diocese, churches are putting faith into action through a range of local climate and nature initiatives. Below are just three examples from churches who have been working towards Eco Church awards (see our webpage for more details) – finding creative ways to fuel action for peace with creation in their communities.

Raising awareness at St Mary’s Wimbledon

St Mary’s Wimbledon took a range of steps to help them hit its silver award milestone. One of the most important steps was simply speaking up about the climate crisis. They held a series of talks, including a speaker from A Rocha, an interview with the CEO of Sustainable Merton and a service where members of the Green Group shared updates about the sustainable changes they’d made.

For the ‘Community and Global engagement’ section of the Eco Church survey, the Green Group decided to organise regular Saturday morning litter picks to keep their community tidy.

When it came to utilising their church land, they held nature-based events and installed features to support local biodiversity, such as their homemade bug hotel. Further action is underway – including plans to install a water butt to collect rainwater for flowers.

Silver is not the end of the journey at St Mary’s, as they continue to find new ways to care for creation in their community.

Beauty in the small things at All Saints Merstham

At All Saints Merstham, having starting their Eco-Church journey in 2020 the pandemic and changes in personnel stunted progress. But, after reviving the effort in 2024 they were surprised how much they had organically achieved over the previous four years.

They found beauty in the small things – realising that most of what was needed to satisfy the criteria for bronze and even silver would come through a series of small changes.

Change came in a range of ways- from switching to energy-saving lightbulbs and eco-friendly cleaning products, to recycling caddies, bird feeders and hedgehog boxes in their limited church ground space. Though having minimal space, they used what they had to make a big impact. Raising their voice, they even wrote to the council for local environmental issues.

Getting the whole congregation on board was key. They raised awareness through regular eco services- encouraging all ages to get on board. Children and young people learnt about the impacts of climate change through building eco creations, whilst adults put their DIY skills to use to install timer switches, dual-flush toilet systems and a heating control system.

It was important to acknowledge they didn’t need to do it all themselves. Though they didn’t have space to host a larger recycling scheme, they used their eco-bulletin to encourage people to recycle and gave details of where they could recycle a huge range of items in their community – from crisp packet, to blister packs, to old felt-tip pens!

Finally, they got creative with ways to make it fun. To raise money to ‘twin their toilets’ – a campaign that ‘twins’ donor toilets with ones overseas to improve sanitation and hygiene – they held a ‘toilet fun-fair’ on National Toilet Day! The unconventional approach helped to fundraise, raise awareness and get the wider church community involved.

Caring for wildlife at St Mary’s Oxted

In May 2024, St Mary’s decided to do their bit for nature by becoming an active Eco Church. A focus for them has been caring for the wildlife in different ways. Taking part in No Mow May was already a staple at St Mary’s, leaving several parts of the churchyard to grow to encourage habitats. Being in the rural south of our diocese, they also had some help from furry friends – a flock of sheep who graze the grass all year round! And more parts of the churchyard were left unmown for ‘Let it Bloom June’.

They took advantage of wider events, with members of Junior Church taking part in Churches Count on Nature week – an opportunity to count species in the main churchyard. During Great Big Green Week, they hosted a series of talks from experts on bees, ocean life and swifts – a species St Mary’s is blessed to have on its grounds. To encourage a group of returning swifts who nest in the church eaves, two purpose built nesting stations were installed under the eaves of the community hall to offer refuge.

The team have also collaborated with the wider community through local nature initiatives, with some members joining the local Friends of the River Eden Ecosystem -undertaking monthly water sampling and testing.

As well as their focus on local nature and biodiversity, changes were made at the church in terms of their buildings. A simple switch from hosting their winter café service in the easier-to-heat community hall instead of the church, saved both money and carbon. While putting in more recycling options in the church itself and doing some table and chair upcycling, a member of the Eco Group also put together a list of local places to recycle hard-to-recycle items. This was shared with Churches Together in Oxted and circulated via the council to local businesses.

Through a series of creative, intentional changes St Mary’s achieved their silver award and have made huge strides in caring for God’s earth.

Finding Peace with Creation

These three churches among many others – different in context and resources – share the same conviction: that caring for creation is an act of faith. Through a range of actions, each seeks peace with creation in their own corner of our diocese.

Creationtide calls us to do the same. Isaiah’s vision of a renewed and fruitful land begins with justice and righteousness. As followers of Christ we are called to walk that path – not just seeking climate and nature justice individually, but as the Body of Christ.

The good news is that when we join our voices, prayers, and actions, change is possible – and no action is futile. In the words of Paul, ‘your labour in the Lord is not in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15:58).

This Creationtide, why not think of what small steps your church could take towards peace with creation? And how might you share those steps, inspiring others to join you?

 

To find resources, prayers, and ideas for Creationtide 2025, visit: Creationtide Resources 2025 – The Diocese of Southwark. If you are inspired to use the Eco Church framework in your own church but don’t know where to start, visit their website or reach out to our Environment Team for guidance.