“Peace with Creation,” is the theme of the 2025 Season of Creation. The annual Celebration Guide will be available in April. Photo: Season of Creation
Call for peace with Creation
(LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has affirmed a message by global faith leaders urging Christians across the world to work toward peace with creation, in preparation for the 2025 Season of Creation.
“Peace with Creation,” is the theme for this year’s “Season of Creation”, the ecumenical initiative that invites Christians worldwide to pray and respond together in caring for the Earth, guided by biblical reflections on Isaiah 32:14-18. This year’s symbol is characterized by a dove carrying an olive branch bringing life to “the garden of peace.” Observed from 1 September to 4 October, Season of Creation highlights ecological justice through prayer, sustainability efforts, and advocacy.
In a message, which is available in several languages, church leaders from various traditions underscore the need for a just world where humanity restores its broken relationship with creation.
They include Norwegian Lutheran youth leader Ms Nora Antonsen, who stresses both faith and action in restoring creation’s peace. “To hope in a biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but to act, pray, change, and reconcile with Creation and the Creator in unity, metanoia (repentance), and solidarity,” she states. “The Lord’s righteousness is associated with both peace between humanity and also the restoration of the fertility of land,” she adds.
To hope in a biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but to act, pray, change, and reconcile with Creation and the Creator in unity, metanoia (repentance), and solidarity
Ms. Nora Antonsen, youth leader, Church of Norway
This year’s Season of Creation coincides with the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed in 2025, which the LWF has affirmed as an opportunity to strengthen efforts for reconciliation and joint witness among all Christian churches. In the video message, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark Faith refers to the historic year as a moment to reflect on Christ’s reincarnation as a revelation of “the Triune God in Creation and that God’s kingdom can appear whenever justice and peace emerge in our midst.”
The Season of Creation team has chosen debt relief as this year’s advocacy initiative. In the message, it is highlighted as an integral part of climate justice and peace with creation in view of the poor and vulnerable countries who contribute the least to climate change yet suffer its worst impacts. Rev. James Bhagwan General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches refers to the Catholic Church’s declaration of 2025 as a jubilee year, to emphasize that “before we can live in peace with each other and creation, there must be a time of justice and reconciliation, and ending debt is one step on the road to that.”
Reflecting on the significance of this year’s theme, LWF Program Executive for Global Lutheran Theology Rev. Dr Eva Harasta said “it resounds deeply with the current situation in many contexts, where human activities take the form of a war against Creation” that affects people and the natural world. “Some hold greater responsibility for this crisis than others. It is a truly ecumenical task and challenge – we are in this together, a living part of creation, called to work toward peace between peoples and with creation, called as individuals and as communities each according to their gifts and responsibilities.”
Harasta represents the LWF on the Season of Creation committee, which is working on the annual Celebration Guide that will be made available online in April 2025. The launch video is available in several languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
More information on this year’s Season of Creation can be found at its website.
