Each year as we begin the Church’s New Year on September 1st we are asked to consider the gift of Creation. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew often referred to as the Green Patriarch has taken special interest in the protection of our environment. In like manner, he has encouraged every Christian to remember the sacred task we have as stewards of creation.
Central to our life as Orthodox Christians is the created world. Our Lord Jesus Christ entered creation and through His Incarnation united the heavenly with the created. As a result, we recognize creation as a gift from God but also as a part of His plan of salvation. On September 1 as we began the New Ecclesiastical Year we celebrated this gift and we are asked to take the time to reorient our lives and actions in a manner that is in accordance with this sacred belief.
Our parish has been blessed with the opportunity to express this belief concretely in the building of our new sanctuary. Not only will we adorn our interior spaces with beautiful iconography but we will also adorn the outside of our campus with natural beauty. To that end we are planting hundreds of living icons of God’s creation. We look forward to seeing the beauty of God’s creation in the new trees, flowers and shrubs that will grow over the years alongside our new church.
This fall we invite you to pray for God’s creation and to learn more about the Orthodox Church’s efforts to protect our environment. This fall we are also providing each parishioner an opportunity to contribute to the natural beauty of our church campus by purchasing one of the trees and shrubs that will be planted this coming spring.
May God who created all things in Glory be magnified in His Creation!
