Season of Creation (SoC) 2008:
Forests Sunday (Sep 7th)
‘All the trees of the forest sing for joy’. Psalm 96:12

Original SoC website: www.seasonofcreation.com
This liturgy from http://ecofaith.org/mnc/soc

most of the liturgy is also available on powerpoint
powerpoint with background images (3.5mb)
powerpoint without backgrounds (300k)
Thanks to Woolgoolga UCA for letting me road test this service with them in August.

These SoC liturgies have a more Uniting Church flavour than the original ones, and often an explicitly evolution/cosmology affirming context.  They are written in the context of the mid north coast of NSW rather than Southern Australia.  Distribute and modify to your heart’s content.

The services  assume that worship is happening inside, but could be easily adapted for outside worship, though.   I would highly recommend moving the service to an appropriate outdoor location to really engage with God as Creator in this season of creation.

Rev Dr Jason John
ecominister, mid north coast
minister, Bellingen Uniting Church

@ indicates a prayer or resource written by Norman Habel and found in the original SOC liturgies.

SETUP

1.  Play one of the many CDs of forest birds or forest noises in the background for the entirety of the service, this gives the basis for the quiet reflection which happens on occasion. **At Woolgoolga we found that the bird CD made it very hard for people with hearing aids to hear the rest of the service, so check the levels carefully with people.
2. Having fresh eucalypt leaves, or even oil in a burner, or pine leaves or something allows another point of connection.  And possibly a point of sermon reflection: what does it mean to have to chop creation down to bring it in to worship?

Welcome

Opening prayer 1:

(I do it non responsively, but you could use the bits in bold)
God of 70,000, million million million stars and countless planets.
We give thanks for your interest in ours. 
You are welcome here. 
We pray for a sense of your presence here amongst us, and an openness to what you have to say to us this morning. 

Give us ears to hear and the courage to respond.
                  

Opening prayer 2:  

God was here before the trees,
Christ made his living from trees, and was hung upon one,
The Spirit dwells amongst the trees
...either and will be here long after they are gone
...or as they sing for joy to the Lord

God of the trees, thankyou for your presence here amongst us today.
Amen
 

Opening Prayer 3 :

The God of the forests be with you.
And also with you.

@God, we gather this morning to worship in this sanctuary called Earth,
            a planet filled with your presence,
            quivering in the forests,
            vibrating in the land,
            pulsating in the outback,
            shimmering in the rivers.

Reveal yourself to us in this place
and show us your face in all creation.

Psalm 96 (use each week)

Silent worship

The writer of psalm 96 calls us to imagine the forests singing for joy to God.  For the next few minutes, hear the forest in its worship of God, and feel free to join in silently yourself, since it is from the forest that our ancestors came. (turn up the forests CD)

We remember

We remember the forests where we have worked and played… From which our ancestors first descended and set out across the plains.
 
God of the forests- we remember

A Deep Ecology option (from John Seed, beyond anthropocentrism):
When humans investigate and see through their layers of anthropocentric self-cherishing, a most profound change in consciousness begins to take place. Alienation subsides. The human is no longer an outsider, apart. Your humanness is then recognized as being merely the most recent stage of your existence, and as you stop identifying exclusively with this chapter, you start to get in touch with yourself as mammal, as vertebrate, as a species only recently emerged from the rainforest. As the fog of amnesia disperses, there is a transformation in your relationship to other species, and in your commitment to them.
What is described here should not be seen as merely intellectual. The intellect is one entry point to the process outlined, and the easiest one to communicate. For some people however, this change of perspective follows from actions on behalf of Mother Earth. "I am protecting the rainforest" develops to "I am part of the rainforest protecting myself. I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into thinking." What a relief then! The thousands of years of imagined separation are over and we begin to recall our true nature. That is, the change is a spiritual one, thinking like a mountain,3 sometimes referred to as "deep ecology."

We are that part of the rainforest recently emerged into thinking
God of the forests: we remember.
.

(if using a printed liturgy) We remember the forest we now hold in our hand, and its true value, well beyond the dollar cost for the paper.
God of the forests- we remember

Of those who cannot see the forest for the finance:
God of the forests- we lament.

Confession

All the trees of the forest shall sing for joy, for the Lord is coming to judge the earth
But how long o Lord?

Listen to the trees now.

How many are shouting for joy?

How many are being ploughed under, burned, poisoned, clearfelled?

Who profits?

Where is equity?  Where is righteousness?  Where is truth?

Around the Earth humans bring the sound of chainsaws, clearing for greed and gain.  The sound of old-forest giants falling forever, the sound of rare species breathing their last.
Once used to crucify Christ, now crucified themselves.

SONG: Ashes to Ashes (DUTNEY)- Download audio from http://ecofaith.org/mnc/soc/ashes to ashes.mp3

Suggest week 1 of the SoC just listen, week 2 sings the bits in bold, week 3 sing it all.
If you have a guitarist who can work out the tune obviously that would be great.

Ashes to Ashes and dust to dust
people are made of such natural stuff
birth is a miracle, death is its end
a cycle repeated again and again

siblings parents, ancestors
learning their names and their places because
family’s a gift wrapped in every new birth…
but what of the kinship we have with the earth?

Creatures that creep and that swim and that fly
creatures that love and that talk and that lie
all are embodied, and breathe the same air
life is essentially something we share

villages, townships, cities & states
modes of community people have shaped
how has it happened, we’ve let them become…
a cancerous growth threatening creation?

Ashes to Ashes and dust to dust
ready to take all creation at once
pass me the bottle, I need an escape or
pass the petition before its too late!

turn on the TV, I need some peace or
give me a banner, I’ll take to the streets!
visions of power cast their spell, and their curse

Now where are the
visions of hope for the earth?

Worship leader continues:
Here are the visions of hope for the Earth!  Selective harvesting, Trees for Life, lovers and crafters of wood, those who put their bodies on the line in the service of equity and righteousness and truth.  The rainforest come to consciousness.

Either: We confess the risen body of Christ and others of good will, bringing joy to the forests.

OR: Nothing in creation, nothing done to creation, can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus. So we confess the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding.

Passing the Peace

Deep peace, as of the predawn forest be with you
(Or: May the peace of Christ, deep as the predawn forest, be with you)

And also with you.

Welcome each other, and share the peace of the God of the forests with each other.

Readings

See also this collection of non-biblical readings

Those suggested at the SoC web site are Genesis 2:4b-22; Psalm 139:13-16; Acts 17:22-28; John 3:1-16

I would suggest using Psalm 96 each week (also found in 1 Chronicles 16), since it provides the title theme, this week, and refers to forests, earth and water (oceans technically), and links the praise of creation to God’s justice.

Acts 17:22-28 is about all of us living and moving and having our being in God, a rich source of reflection when combined with the imagery of all creation praising and living in God.

Genesis 2:4b- covers the creation of the garden and the iconic tree of good and evil.  If you go with that, you might want to play Andrew Dutney’s, “Leave the Tree alone” song, downloadable off the mnc web site (“http://ecofaith.org/mnc/soc/leave the tree alone.mp3”).

If you wanted to emphasise the non literal nature of the creation story, it might be worth using another in the readings as well.  “Big Mama makes the world” by Phillis Root (Walker Books) is available from Kentigern books. (02 9894 5364, www.kentigern.com.au).  Amazon.com has a number of reviews of it here.  It is great for liberal/progressive congregations, or in a congregation with a bit of a sense of humour, able to take things with a grain of salt, who can handle God being a woman!  It has a bit of a “then God left us to it” ending, so you might want to stop with Big Mama sitting on the porch laughing and chatting with us all.  I also change “people” to human, since I think many other animals are people too!

There are 53 references to forests, and over 200 to trees in the biblical witnesses, so you should have no trouble finding more readings!  In the gospels there is the mustard bush being a huge tree, and the various stories about fig trees.

 In words of old we have heard
 the Spirit speak anew.
Thanks be to God!

Sermon:

We have a Christian who works for national parks, and used to be involved in actions to prevent illegal logging coming to speak about the relationship between his faith and forests.

Offering

The forests sing for joy. They make their offering of oxygen so that we can sing for joy too, and make our offerings.

<If you are having communion this week, you might want to insert the “SoC Communion 2008” material here>

Sending forth/Blessing

May the Spirit of God, who is above all and in all and through all, open our ears to the joyfull songs of the trees around us.

May we make space for them to grow, as they fill our lungs with fresh air for our own songs of praise.

May we consider the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, and be dazzled by the glory of God on Earth: God's home and our home.

Amen.

Exiting Song

From the Collaborations CD, Guide me God, by Sinead O’Connor is a catchy one.
 You can buy the single online, or hear it here on utube, along with various remixes.