“Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God’s works.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 198
Catholic belief is succinctly expressed in the profession of faith or credo called the Nicene Creed.[1] Given the global “Climate Emergency,” what significance can seventeen-hundred-year-old credal assertions hold today?[2] If Christians of all stripes took this profession of faith seriously, and engaged in concrete, consistent, and deeply doxological co-creative activities each day, what difference would it make toward resolving our current global crisis? How might a common, more thoroughly unified celebration of liturgical prayer enable Christians to enact the doctrine of creation in the world today?
Such questions captured the attention of over one hundred Christians theologians, ethicists, liturgists, clergy, and denominational leaders on March 15 and 16, 2024, gathered in Assisi, Italy with many others participating online from numerous other time zones. “The Feast of Creation and the Mystery of Creation” was a seminar convened by The World Council of Churches (WCC), the Laudato Si’ Movement Research Institute of Cambridge, and other partners,intended “to deepen the collective understanding and appreciation of the Feast of Creation, sometimes observed on 1 September.”
The Nicene Creed is Christianity’s foremost, single, summative, and explicit statement proclaiming the one triune God as “the Creator of heaven and earth.” The Christological controversies that dominated in 325 AD were never at issue in the March 2024 sessions. Rather, throughout all Assisi sessions, the deep bonds of unity that undergirds a Christian vision and values toward addressing our “climate emergency” prevailed.
Over 100 Christians – theologians, ethicists, liturgists, scholars and activist faithful – from all continents and every denomination imaginable, met at Assisi’s Cittadella Laudato Si’ conference center. They deliberated over an excellent proposal drafted by the Laudato Si’ Research Institute, entitled “The Feast of Creation and the Mystery of Creation.” That document provided a little-known history of the current discussion and focused on potential benefits of a universal fixed date for a feast day honoring creation on Christian liturgical calendars. Currently similar celebrations are observed among some polities each September 1st, e.g., “Creation Day” “World Day of Prayer for Creation.” The crux of the proposal is to inaugurate a common liturgical observance among all Christians.
The choice of September 1st has deep roots in Eastern Christianity. September 1st, as “the Day of Creation” symbolizes the beginning – when God said, “Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:3). This “beginning of time” defined in “The Basilian Minology,” marked September 1st as first day of the calendar year and was celebrated by the Ecumenical Patriarch between the 7th and 18th Centuries.[3] Other sessions provided a review of ecumenical conversations, thus far; panels on “Lex orandi; Lex credendi; Theology and Liturgy on the Event of Creation;and concluding with a group process for outlining “The Journey Ahead.”
As scholars know, language can limit or inform – opening new horizons when addressing a given topic. A significant distinction is articulated using terms in the Italian language. Participants addressed both meanings in their various sessions. Italians differentiate “la Creazione,” which primarily stands for God’s act of creation of the cosmos – i.e. Creation as theological mystery (creatio in Latin), and” il Creato” which stands for the result of the act of creation, the fruit of “la Creazione” – i.e. Creation as the created universe, or everything created (cuncta creata in Latin).
With these distinctions in mind, theological and liturgical importance turned to the status of the relationship between the two notions – the weaving of both the ongoing acts of God in creation as well as the results of creation. The two aspects, of course, lead to different responses in the 21st century: both thanksgiving and lament, the stance of awe and the profound need for remorse and contrition. Here the moral and the liturgical dimensions are evoked and are ripe to challenge forth innovative liturgical, spiritual, and catechetical practices for meaning making.
The fruit of such meaning making holds potential for Christians to be a formidable force for healing and repair of our Common Home. Practically, various Christian polities have already been empowered to actualize their role in such a formalized interdenominational unity and practices. However, the Roman Catholic tradition requires a more formal process seeking engagement with the Roman hierarchy.
Thus, on December 5-8, 2024, another session will take place at Assisi’s Cittadella Laudato Si’ conference center. The focus of discussions will be, “the theological, historical, and pastoral examination of “Creation Day” (September 1st), following the three-fold methodology of Sacrosanctum Concilium, §23, for “legitimate progress” with new liturgical developments, to assess such days potential to become a feast on the Roman calendar. Session goals include: (1) exploring the history of Creation Day (2) analyzing it concerning the Trinitarian-Christological Mystery (3) envisioning theologically how it might look, etc. (4) examining pastoral potential in light of the signs of the times, e.g. science, ecological conversion, evangelization – especially with youth and relevance of the lectionary to the historic moment (2008 synod), and integration of the biblical foundations of integral ecology in the liturgy (2005 synod), and (5) examining the history and the formats of the institution of new feasts.
The major presenters will include:
- Alenka Arko – University of Ljubljana
- Angelo Lameri – Pontificia Università Lateranense
- Celia Deane-Drummond – Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Oxford University
- Declan O’Byrne – Sophia University Institute
- Elena Massimi – Istituto di Liturgia Pastorale S. Giustina
- Juan Rego – Istituto di Liturgia, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce
- Joris Geldhof – Liturgical Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- Kimberly Belcher – University of Notre Dame
- Prem Xalxo – Pontificia Università Gregoriana & Laudato Si’ Alliance of Pontifical Universities
- Riccardo Ferri – Pontificia Università Lateranense
- Simone Morandini – Istituto di Studi Ecumenici S. Bernardino, Pontificia Università Antonianum
- Tonio dell’Olio – Pro Civitate Christiana
- Timothy Brunk – Villanova University
Anyone interested in more information can contact: Assisi@LaudatoSi.org.
—
[1] “What We Believe,” https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe.
[2] See Dawn M. Nothwehr, Franciscan Writings: Hope amid Ecological Sin and Climate Emergency, (London: T&T Clark, 2023), xv-xvi, notes18-20.
[3] THE FEAST OF CREATION: AN ECUMENICAL DREAM TO MARK THE 1700 YEARS OF NICAEA, Draft by the Laudato Si’ Research Institute at Oxford University, in dialogue with the ecumenical conveners of the seminar “Feast of Creation and Mystery of Creation” and scholars from across denominations https://docs.google.com/document/d/14LSl7vxhzkaEFUQe2dMefmpgwCDizCZyVR7NAM8ikFc/edit
Works Cited
Dawn M. Nothwehr, Franciscan Writings: Hope amid Ecological Sin and Climate Emergency, (London: T&T Clark, 2023), xv-xvi, notes18-20.
The Feast of Creation: An Ecumenical Dream to Mark the 1700 Years of Nicaea, Draft by the Laudato Si’ Research Institute at Oxford University, in dialogue with the ecumenical conveners of the seminar “Feast of Creation and Mystery of Creation” and scholars from across denominations https://docs.google.com/document/d/14LSl7vxhzkaEFUQe2dMefmpgwCDizCZyVR7NAM8ikFc/edit
Paul VI. Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium.) 1963. Vatican.va, https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html
Synod of Bishops, Eleventh Ordinary General Assembly – The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church (2-23 October 2005), http://secretariat.synod.va/content/synod/en/synodal_assemblies/2005-eleventh-ordinary-general-assembly–the-eucharist–source-a.html
—. Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly – The Word of God in the Life and the Mission of the Church (5-26 October 2008), http://secretariat.synod.va/content/synod/en/synodal_assemblies/2008-twelfth-ordinary-general-assembly–the-word-of-god-in-the-l.html
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, 2016, https://usccb.cld.bz/Catechism-of-the-Catholic-Church/
—. “What We Believe,” https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe.