The guide to  Creation Time 2023, the description and ideas can be found on the Archdiocese website, but can also be viewed below.

In addition to recycling electrical items, there is a use for books no longer needed at home. Books In English or French – nursery, primary, secondary and university textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, reference books, novels, hobby and leisure pursuits, Bibles, hymnals or religious books.

A full list can be found at https://books2africa.org/. They can be left in the porch or on the doorstep of 58 Lincoln Close. You are welcome to come and help sort donations on Wednesday or Thursday 10 am – 1 pm at CareUK in the Riverside Retail Park (the former Laura Ashley shop).

Update 6th October 2022

On the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecologists and animals, the Social Justice Department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has launched a new edition of its teaching document on the environment – The Call of Creation. The Call of Creation was first published two decades ago, in 2002, this new edition is released at the conclusion of the Church’s month-long Season of Creation. The document calls for a “profound interior conversion” and for Catholics to “repair our relationship with God’s creation” to address the current ecological crisis.

Writing in the foreword, Bishop John Arnold, Lead Bishop for the Environment, and Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the Social Justice department, say: “We are a people of hope who believe in redemption. We must study the signs of the times and take the action that is needed to repair our relationship with God’s creation. As is made clear in The Call of Creation, the exercise of the virtue of solidarity and the promotion of the common good, which are so needed at this time, are the responsibility of each and every individual and institution in society.”

You can read the updated Call of Creation on the  Bishops Conference of England and Wales website here.

Update 22nd September 2022

The following prayer was published by Pope Francis as part of the Laudato Si encyclical. CAFOD have quoted this prayer, however, the prayer, and it's Creation Time implications, are central to achieving our Creation Time objectives. Please feel free to use it in your own prayers for our future.

A prayer for our earth

Update 4th September 2022

Listening to the Voice of Creation on the lawn!

Thank you to all the bakers, helpers, and those who made donations, making Sunday morning a great success. We were able to catch up with each other while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. £80.43 was raised for Charities which Fr Gildea supports on behalf of our parishioners. As much as possible we support Fairtrade products.

In keeping with "Season of Creation" the table decorations were garden flowers, with no air miles, and logs borrowed from Fr Gildea's log pile, to stop them blowing over in the wind!

Thank you for your support and look out for more in the coming weeks.

Update 29th August 2022

Update 3rd August 2022

The date for the St. Peter's School Eco Council  is proposed for weekend of 24th / 25th September. 

The link to the Eco Council page on St. Peter's School website, if anyone wishes to look for ideas, is here.

The objective of Creation Time is to call out to local leaders and communities to participate actively, by raising awareness of the theme to unite us all and call to care for our common home - the earth. Towards this objective, we ask parishioners to think of their surroundings and nature. How can we encourage awareness and improve and  maintain a better earth and our climate?

Nature Photos

We ask, during August, parishioners to submit photos of nature, landscapes , holiday snaps ( views

only, no people on them) . Most appropriate / best  ( 10 photos  - 2 for each weekend ) will be used as the first and last slides used during weekend Masses with the name of person or screen name - just like on the BBC weather forecast!

If enough images are submitted, then they can be different for Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

Submissions should be made to stpeterslivesimply@gmail.com in landscape or portrait format and on a powerpoint slide if possible, but a jpeg file should also be fine on its own.

The Eco Council at school are already working towards this, so we are harnessing their energy and ideas to bring more awareness. In the Gallery below, there are three "nature" photos for consideration for one of our "Creation Time Projects". These are:

Red-tailed bumble bee on a thistle, known for its distinctive black and red body, this social bee is important in pollination

Reflections on the Mersey at Woolston

New Thelwall Ferry boat - "Bonnie" - saving the carbon footprint!

The history of the ferry, and the times of operation, can be found here.

Background

In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch suggested that 1 September, the first day of the Orthodox Church's year, should be observed as a day "of protection of the natural environment". Ten years later the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN) widened this proposal, urging churches to adopt a Time for Creation stretching from 1 September to the feast of St Francis on 4 October and this was endorsed by the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, Romania in 2007, which recommended that the period "be dedicated to prayer for the protection of Creation and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles that reverse our contribution to climate change".

The Roman Catholic Church has followed this initiative and its timings. Pope Francis’s encyclical ‘Laudato Si ‘ invites us  to respect, care for,  and protect creation and share with God in its ongoing creation and  renewal

As environmentalists, we might think about how to improve the state of our planet .This is important but not our starting point.

As Christians, we start with Christ. He is our redeemer, whose saving grace included releasing creation from it's decay and bondage. God created the world complete, but in a state of journeying. God’s plan was from the beginning that Christ’s redemption was to bring us to eternal life and glory and also to bring creation to its final perfection. Thomas Keating writes:

‘Christ who disappeared in his Ascension, not into some geographical location, but into the heart of all creation to infuse all of creation with the grace of his redemption.' 

 Redemption is personal, individual and cosmic. We cannot limit it to just our own souls. Humans have held the view that we were to use, even exploit the created world because we were at the top, we were in charge. We are now aware of how destructive this is. Pope Francis reminds us of this error and calls us to care for the earth as if it was a person and to be aware of the impact of our decisions on the earth and to carefully use its resources. 

How do we live out Creation time?

We need knowledge, conversion and action.  For action to be wise and sustainable it needs a good foundation. We need some understanding of the causes of climate change and the effects it has on the poorest. It is the Mother of all injustices causing flooding and food shortages. It creates climatic refugees.

We also need to be aware of our carbon footprint. We then need to pray as to the small steps we can each take. The Buddhists say change is suffering; to change  always goes against the grain but God makes attractive what we at first find unattractive.

So prayer is necessary and what Pope Francis calls an ecological conversion. Of course it is a cyclic process. 

The actions can be:

              ·        Having Green energy

              ·        A meat free day or 2

              ·        Reduced car use/ more walking and cycling

              ·        Thinking about reducing what we use, what we consume and where we travel to

              ·        Fair-trade

These are few ideas. Making a start and keeping up small actions are what counts.