The Season of Creation is a time that communities of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant faiths observe from September 1, the day of prayer for creation, to October 4, the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. Like the Season of Creation website said, this season invites all Christians “to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and engagement together.”
If you’re new to the Season of Creation or interested in resources to help your community experience the season this year, we’ve got you covered. This article offers a range of resources on creation care and climate justice for all ages. We have included ideas for activities and actions, books, programs and resource centers. We also invite you to consult our “Prayers and Psalms for the Season of Creation” article.
If you know of a helpful Christian training resource on creation care and climate justice that isn’t on this list, leave a comment below and tell us about it!
Activities and ideas for action
Pilgrimage of care for creation
A pilgrimage can be a great way to connect and learn about the ecology in or near your community. “” by Valérie ReinkePlanning a Creative Healing Pilgrimage for Youth” offers helpful tips and resources for planning a creation care pilgrimage. The wisdom she shares can be helpful not only for youth journeys, but also for adult and parish-wide pilgrimages.
Guardians of the Earth
One way to begin a creation care ministry in your congregation is to commission Earth Guardians. In “Advancing creation care and climate justice with Earth Keepers“, Sarah Braik, Jenny Reece, and Steve Ward share how the Episcopal Diocese of Maine began equipping Earth Keepers in its parishes and highlight several different ways Earth Keepers minister in their communities.
Gardens of the Good News
Gardens of the Good News it’s all about caring for creation with God as a community of faith right where you are, however you can. Brian Sellers-Petersen’s article “Gardens of the Good News: a movement to manage and care for creation» shares a multitude of ways to get involved in the Good News Gardens movement, not only by growing a community garden, but also through practices that don’t require space and conditions for gardening, like conservation, composting, and partnering with Black and Indigenous groups doing social and ecological justice work.
Green and growing club
“Amy Campbell”The Green and Growth Club: Engaging families in creative care practices” is a training opportunity that involves sending families resources by mail or online so they can learn and care for creation at home. The design of this program leaves plenty of room for adaptation and creativity to fit your context.
Toolkit for making congregations greener
Earth Ministry (Washington Interfaith Power & Light) has developed a “Toolkit for making congregations greener” to help congregations of diverse faiths put their commitments to creation into practice. The toolkit includes information on how to become a “green congregation” as well as ideas for integrating care of creation into worship, education, buildings and grounds, community engagement, and advocacy. You can access the toolkit for free via the link above.
Nature Trekking, Journaling, Sketching, and Reflecting
In “Celebrate Creation with Asked Questions“, Angela Compton-Nelson provides a number of ideas and tips for exploring the outdoors in a way that honors and questions all that God has created. A nature hike, as she points out, can include breaks for journaling or drawing. Her suggestions are especially helpful for children, families with children, and intergenerational groups.
Prayer Calendar and Bingo
Sarah Bentley Allred offers two ideas for intergenerational training resources with downloadable printables and templates in “Prayer Calendar and Bingo Sheet for the Season of Creation.” The prayer calendar and bingo board can be tailored to the ecology and interests of your community.
Creation Stations
This idea comes from “Via Creationis: The path to creation” on the Season of Creation website. Like a Stations of the Cross, this practice invites participants in prayers and readings in a series of creation-focused stations. The link includes a guide and sample liturgy. The guide says it was originally written for Roman Catholic communities and “can be freely adapted to other faith contexts.”
Books
The Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land by Norman Wirzba (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022)
This book begins with the conviction that “the God of Scripture is an agrarian God” (as Wirzba says at the beginning of the preface). It consists of nine chapters and explores six spiritual practices: “pray[ing],” “see[ing],” “to come down[ding]», “humility”, “generosity” and “hope” – through the prism of an agrarian-centered theology.
The art of being a creature: meditations on humus and humility by Ragan Sutterfield (Wipf & Stock, 2024)
This book offers 42 short meditations (2 to 4 pages each) on the ground interwoven with personal narrative and theological reflection.
Becoming rooted: one hundred days of reconnection with the sacred Earth by Randy Woodley (Broadleaf, 2022)
This book of 100 short meditations (2 pages each) draws on the author’s Indigenous experience to encourage readers to learn and become more connected to creation in the places and lands where they live. Each meditation also offers thought prompts and practices.
The Creation Care Bible Challenge: A 50 Day Bible Challenge edited by Marek P. Zabriskie (Forward Movement, 2022)
This book is a devotional that offers 50 entries (approximately 4 pages each) with scriptures, reflections, and prayers about creation.
Everyone Must Eat: Food, Sustainability, and Ministry by Mark L. Yackel-Juleen (Fortress, 2021)
This book draws attention to the ministry of the rural church as a vital site for engaging in the fight against ecological degradation and the care of creation. It aims to equip ministry leaders in diverse contexts with a deeper theological, biblical, sociological, and economic insight into the importance of contemporary land practices so that Christian communities can better discern faithful and sustainable ways to care for food systems and all lives affected by them.
In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Youth in Times of Climate Crisis by Talitha Amadea Aho (Fortress, 2022)
This book explains how to minister to young people in the context of the current climate crisis. It uses stories and reflections to highlight adolescents’ experiences and concerns with the ecological devastation visited upon them, and it provides pastoral wisdom for those who care for young people in tending to their gifts and needs in responding to the climate crisis.
The Saskatoon berry: abundance and reciprocity in the natural world by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Scribner, 2024)
This book highlights the gifts of the land from an Indigenous perspective and challenges capitalist and inequitable ways of relating to the land and to each other. If you would like to explore this book as a group, check out Patrick Neitzey’s article ““The Serviceberry”: A Five-Week Bible Study and Book”, which includes a free downloadable discussion guide that he created and uses at his church.
Study programs
Abundant Life Garden Project (Episcopal relief and development2020, Episcopal Church)
This is a free digital program for children and intergenerational groups that focuses on the abundant life God gives to creation and the importance of sharing that life with others. It consists of 6 lessons on the themes “Water”, “Soil”, “Seeds”, “Animals”, “Harvest” and “Celebration”.
Climate Justice Program for Youth and Young Adults (Lesson plans that work2021, Episcopal Church)
It is a free digital program for middle and high school youth and young adults that allows them to think theologically about the climate crisis so they can use faith to take action for ecological justice. It includes 7 lessons and age-specific plans for each lesson are available for youth and young adult groups.
Compassion Camp: What Every Living Being Needs (Illustrated Ministry2023, not affiliated with any denomination)
This is a purchasable digital curriculum designed for Vacation Bible School and focused on creation care. He uses Psalm 104 to address the vital needs for “shelter,” “food,” “water,” “air,” and “community” that human and nonhuman creatures share. The program includes 5 lessons with a variety of activities including recreational games, music, arts and crafts and service. This resource is also flexible enough for other child and intergenerational training contexts beyond a traditional VBS program. You can learn more about the program by visiting Building Faith’s Presentation of the 2024 VBS Program Review by Marvin McLennon.
Faithful Resilience (Ministries of Justice Creation2022, multifaith)
This is a free digital program for adults that explores how communities can be resilient and seek equity and justice in the face of impending changes brought about by the climate crisis, particularly sea level rise and people moving to other communities and locations as a result. It offers 6 lessons including scriptures, reflection questions, research leads to learn about local ecologies, actions to take, and stories highlighting communities putting resilience into practice.
Follow me: Take care of creation (Growing Faith Resources2024, Presbyterian Church (USA))
This is a unit of the “Follow Me” program which grounds concern for creation in the Christian faith. It is available in versions suitable for children, youth, adults and intergenerational groups, and can be purchased as a stand-alone print or digital product or as a bundle with other units. It includes 4 lessons on themes “Appreciating God’s Creation”, “Until”, “Sharing the Planet” and “Restoring Creation”.
God’s world in community: care for creation (GenOn Ministriesecumenical)
This is an intergenerational digital program for purchase that invites participants into scripture readings, creation care activities, and prayer together. It consists of 7 lessons that follow Genesis 1 in tandem with the associated psalms.
An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation (Illustrated Ministrynot affiliated with any denomination)
This is a digital program for purchase designed for children that highlights Bible stories about creation. It offers 12 lessons on four main themes: “water”, “plants”, “food” and “animals”. Lessons include gathering activities, age-appropriate Bible paraphrases, open-ended inquiry questions, coloring pages, and prayers. A separate version of the program designed for families to use at home is also available for purchase.
Learning together: created to care (Éditions Esprit et Vérité2023-2024, not affiliated with any denomination)
This is a program available for purchase that is designed to be flexible for use in children’s training, intergenerational settings, and vacation Bible school programs. It focuses on the story of creation in Genesis 1-2:3 and emphasizes that care of creation is a human calling. The program includes 5 lessons which cover the themes “Air and sky”, “Earth and waters”, “Water animals”. and the air”, “Land animals and humans” and “Sabbath and rest”. Classes offer a range of creative activities and games which can take place at different stations.
Love God, love God’s world (Episcopal Church2024)
This free digital program brings together documentary films, videos, podcasts, readings, and theological reflections from eight authors to help adults think critically and constructively about climate change in tandem with their faith, as well as to inspire a commitment to caring for creation in their context. The program is discussion-oriented and includes three parts of three lessons each: exploring the question “What is God’s dream?” » ; “Tell the truth” about the negative impacts of ecological degradation on human and non-human lives; and wondering what “Restore the Alliance, Repair the Earth” might look like.
ReNew: the green VBS (Sparkhouse2017, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
This is a shoppable program designed for Vacation Bible School that not only emphasizes creation care, but also invites communities to integrate creation care into all dimensions of their VBS planning and programming. It focuses on the Parable of the Sower in the Gospel of Mark for all 5 lessons and provides activities and design ideas that encourage environmental awareness. To learn more about this program, you can consult our Presentation of the revision of the sustainable VBS 2025 program by Jodi Belcher.
Resource centers
Care of Creation Study Guides Since The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona
This website includes links and information on several different training resources for youth and adults.
Resource Center by Ministries of Justice Creation
This center offers a wide range of training resources for children, youth, and adults, including Bible studies, liturgies, topical guides, seasonal and holiday resources, and much more. The site also contains a table that lists all resources hosted by Creation Justice Ministries with tags, scriptural references, and other helpful information.
Resources has Interfaith Power and Light
This resource page provides materials for worship and education as well as learning about solar energy opportunities for congregations.
Season of Creation Resources has Season of Creation
The Season of Creation website provides a number of resources to commemorate the season. These include denomination-specific materials, advocacy resources, promotional downloads and graphics, liturgical resources and activities. Some resources are available in English and other languages.
Resources on the Time of Creation and St. Francis Since Episcopal Church Creation Care
This page provides links and information about the Seasons of Creation, the Prophetic Voices for the Times of Creation podcast, and Episcopal liturgical resources for the Seasons of Creation and the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (which are available in English and Spanish).
Toolkit to Launch Your Creation Care Ministry Since Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church
This page offers a wealth of resources for understanding and implementing creation care, including scriptures on creation, theological perspectives from John Wesley and other church leaders in Christian history, prayers, book lists, films, practical tips, and additional websites and resources to consult.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 24, 2024. It was updated and republished on August 11, 2025.
The image shown is of Jeffrey Workman on Unsplash; additional images are by (in order of appearance): Lenka Dzurendova For photo of the compost bin, Gabriel Jimenez For photo of human hands holding earth, Camerawriter Photos For photo of hummingbird and flowersAnd Emmanuel Phaeton For photo of human hands holding the Bible on Unsplash