Day of creation

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Since 2010, the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK) has been celebrating an ecumenical day of creation on the first Friday in September every year . The focus is on praising the Creator, one's own repentance in the face of the destruction of creation and concrete steps to protect it. The idea of ​​celebrating this day came from the Orthodox Church .

history

In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Dimitrios invited “the whole Orthodox and Christian world” to pray “to the Creator of the world on September 1st: with prayers of thanks for the great gift of the created world and supplications for its protection and for hers Salvation". This initiative was welcomed and adopted by the entire Orthodox Church in 1992. At the same time, questions about the preservation of creation, peace and justice were part of the ecumenical discourse at the time, and many Christians were already committed to the conciliar process. Part of this process were the European ecumenical assemblies in Basel (1989), Graz (1997) and Sibiu (2007). The initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarch was taken up in both Graz and Sibiu. The message of the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu even recommends a time for creation: “We recommend that the period between September 1st and October 4th be devoted to prayer for the protection of creation and the promotion of a sustainable lifestyle to stop climate change. ”(Recommendation X). This creation time is now celebrated worldwide. The Charta Oecumenica , which was signed by the churches of Europe in 2001, recommends “to introduce an ecumenical day of prayer for the integrity of creation in the European churches” (guideline 9).

The member churches of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK) accepted the Charter Oecumenica at the 1st Ecumenical Church Congress 2003 for Germany. The ACK also took up the recommendation of the Charter Oecumenica to introduce a day of creation. She initiated a two-year consultation process and discussed the question of introducing a day of creation at an information day in Brühl (2008) and a specialist conference (2009) in Mainz. The member churches of the ACK gave a positive vote for the introduction of a day of creation. At its general assembly in Augsburg (2009) the ACK decided to introduce the ecumenical day of creation, which it solemnly proclaimed at the 2nd Ecumenical Church Congress 2010 in Munich .

The General Assembly of the ACK in Augsburg (2009) decided to celebrate the ecumenical day of creation annually with a central celebration on the first Friday in September. The date is within the period recommended by the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly.

Content

The content basis of the day of creation is the praise of the creator, the repentance because of the human offense against creation and the practice of concrete steps ("school of fellow suffering").

After the kick-off event on September 3, 2010 in Brühl (Rhineland), the following central celebrations took place: 2011 in Berlin (motto: “With you, God, is the source of life” - Ps. 36,10), 2012 in Nagold ( "Now something new is growing" - Isaiah 43:19), 2013 in Hamburg ("God's Creation - House of Life for All"), 2014 in Munich ("Amazement. Research. Action - Together in the Service of Creation"), 2015 in Borna (" Back to Paradise? ”), 2016 in Bingen (“ The whole creation - Praise to God ”), 2017 in Lübeck (“ As far as heaven and earth is ”), 2018 in Starkow (“ You can live from my fruits ”) and 2019 in Heilbronn ("Salt of the Earth" - Mt 5:13).

variants

In South Tyrol, the day has been celebrated on September 1st since 1998, as decided in 1997 at the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz in 1997 .

The story of creation is read out during Vespers on the Orthodox day of creation.

The Roman Catholic Church has taken up the impulse from the Orthodox Church and in 2015 introduced September 1st as the world day of prayer for the preservation of creation. Pope Francis sent a letter to the two cardinals Peter Turkson and Kurt Koch , with the task of shaping this day within the Catholic Church and promoting it in ecumenical cooperation.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America celebrates Creation Day on April 22nd , as an ecclesiastical variant of Earth Day .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also the basic booklet of the ACK on the day of creation: http://www.oekumene-ack.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Publikationen/Gottes_Schoepfung_fiere.pdf
  2. ^ Message of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly , September 8, 2007.
  3. ↑ Time of Creation
  4. ↑ Ecumenical Day of Creation from September 1st to October 4th ("Brühler Recommendation")
  5. ↑ Perspectives for the celebration of an ecumenical day of creation in Germany ("Mainzer Perspektiven")
  6. ↑ ACK: 2. ÖKT: Proclamation of the ecumenical day of creation
  7. ↑ http://www.oekumene-ack.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Stellunghaben/Tag_der_Schoepfung_Beschluss_ACK.pdf
  8. ↑ https://www.ccee.eu/images/areas/otherecumenicalissues/Final_Mess_DE.doc
  9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160405102651/http://de.radiovaticana.va:80/news/2015/08/10/papst_greif_orthodoxe_idee_auf_gebetstag_f%C3%BCr_die_sch%C3%B6epper/1164059
  10. ↑ https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/de/letters/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150806_lettera-giornata-cura-creato.html
  11. ↑ http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/KalenderApril/22.htm