Our 'Thought' is on Creationtide - 20th September 2026, Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

There are a wide range of theological opinions within the church, this article reflects the views of the author

'Feast of Creation in Christ'

‘All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluya, alleluya’

So begins one of the best loved hymns of all time. It is based on St Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun, and is very fitting for this festival day, or for use at any time during this Season of Creation, which runs from 1st September to 4th October (St Francis of Assisi’s feast day).

Today is the first time that the Church of England has celebrated this Festival of Creation in Christ, which was established by General Synod in July this year, so joining many other Christian denominations in a truly ecumenical act of witness.

For centuries the Eastern Orthodox churches have celebrated this Festival as the beginning of their year, and in 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch invited ‘the entire Christian world to offer every year on this day prayers and supplications to the Maker of all, both as thanksgiving for the great gift of Creation and as petitions for its protection and salvation.’

Today in the Diocese of Lincoln, we accept this invitation, and share in this joyful, serious, prayerful festival, allowing ourselves to remember God’s work in creation in Christ, and to pray for the wellbeing of all that he drew into loving existence out of nothing.

Our gospel reading sets the scene. Before anything else, there is God, and it is God who gives life to plants and creatures, setting the universe into motion and energising all things with purpose and meaning. We hear the stories of creation in Genesis, and we can feel the impact of creation in many of the psalms, such as Psalm 96, which is also set for today: ‘Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth’.

The act of creation out of nothing is implicit to today’s gospel. God speaks, and creation begins. The Word of God, God’s creating agent, is the second person of the Trinity, who takes human flesh in Jesus. His pre-existence in the mystery that is the Holy Trinity is described with great beauty here by the evangelist John. We are used to hearing this passage at Christmas, and to focusing on it as a description of the birth of the Christ-child. Today, we are invited to read and to feel it as an evocation of the awesome wonder that is God. We and everything else are God’s creatures. God loves us all into being, holding us in existence, cradling us even when we encounter the inevitable pains of this life, and endowing us with responsibility and connectedness to the rest of the created order.

So today’s Festival of Creation in Christ is above all an opportunity to give thanks for the wonder that we have been given in the world.

Let us try to see its beauty, its intricacy, its grandeur and its vulnerability to the impact of human greed. And let us recognise that, as God’s stewards, in succession to Adam and Eve, we are given the responsibility of working the land and the seas, and caring for them and their non-human fellow creatures.

We are celebrating this Season of Creation having had probably the hottest year in Greater Lincolnshire since records began. Our grain harvest was at least three weeks early. We have experienced drought. These are realities which we must face, and which require us to respond. As stewards, our actions make a difference. And our hope, despite the challenges that we face, is in Christ. This is because, in the words of the New Testament reading that is also set for today: ‘He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together’ (Colossians 1.17).

Jesus Christ, the Word, created the world in the beginning. Jesus Christ, the Word, loved the world to the end on the cross, and called his disciples into a new relationship with him that would ready them for eternity and equip them to serve him and their neighbours in love. Our calling in Christ is a profound one. We can often understand it as trying to respond to others in service, and to the Father in prayer. But it also means trying to follow Jesus the Word made flesh in drawing ourselves and the rest of creation into a more flourishing, just and hopeful life.

On this first Festival of Creation in Christ may we rejoice in the gift of creation and throughout this season may we consider how we can best serve God and all his creatures:

‘Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluya!

Homily by Bishop Nicholas, taken from the Diocese of Lincoln website