Tag: environmental

Eco-Sunday is a Sunday where our prime purpose is to celebrate creation and to commit to our care to it. This year we have guest speaker Rev. Jim Antal coming to speak. To prepare for his presence, we will be reading his book, Climate Church, Climate World.

Not only is our worship wound around this theme, but the Faith in Action Team of the church is hosting an Eco-vendor showcase where environmental action groups can come and share their information with us following worship.

For this service, I wrote the following Pastoral Prayer. If you choose to borrow it, you will want to find out what native nations lived (and live) on the land you inhabit. You will want to perhaps change the animal that is the “annoyance” like our black flies. As well, change out the NH granite, majestic mountains, and other NH centric notations like the loon’s cry.

You are welcome to use it for any religious or educational purposes, but please cite me as the author. All rights are reserved.

Pastoral Prayer

Creator, who continues to create,

Today we expand our thoughts and prayers beyond our traditional boundaries – 

We pray for the people of this earth, especially the indigenous people of this land on which we stand today: the Abenaki and Pennecook

And also for the non-human inhabitants of this land.

We pray for the great loon whose cry haunts our lakes,

For the salamanders we sometimes find underfoot,

For the bold American Eagle we see fly overhead,

And for the trout and bass in the waters.

We pray for the water herself as she falls from the sky,

For the the water that gathers and flows down our hills,

For the streams and rivers and lakes

And all that find their home in them and from them.

We pray for the beautiful NH granite and the trees that grow so tall.

We pray for the majestical beautiful mountains that reach tall around us

And for the blessing of their many trails.

We give thanks for the frogs, and ducks, 

And reluctantly even for the black flies.

In and amongst it all, we give thanks for you, O God, the creator of all that is was and ever will be; and thanks for a system which constantly seeks to right itself, and for those who have put their names, their reputations, and yes, sometimes their lives on the line to protect all that you have made.  Continue to watch over the brave. Care for the weak and remind us all of our interconnectedness.  We pray all of this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:

We follow this with the Lord’s Prayer.