Photo credit: Don Cochran
On August 21st, Second Presbyterian Church in St Louis, MO worshiped around the theme of caring for God’s creation. One of the nearly 200 Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations certified as an “Earth Care Congregation,” this congregation has a history of creative education, worship, global mission outreach, gardening and more as they care for God’s creation.
Time with Children at Second Presbyterian’s Earth Sunday, 2016. Photo credit: Don Cochran
The service, planned by the Earth Care Team, included a Scripture & Arts reflection on Genesis 2:4-9 and Revelation 22:1-2 and was help at nearby Tower Grove Park, with tables set up in a circle in the outdoor pavilion. Earth Care Team member Ellie Stock writes, “The theme of the service was The Tree of Life. The tables were covered with green cloths with helium earth balloons attached. In the middle was a covered card table with an earth beach ball on it, flowers, the offering plates, two toy red-eyed tree frogs, and 2 pots of sunflowers on the floor next to it. The Sacred Time for Children focused on the items from nature that children picked up and said why they liked them: gourds, flowers, pods, rocks, etc.”
As part of the church’s ongoing earth care ministry, Second Presbyterian Church also supports congregations newly interested in earth care ministry and newly certified Earth Care Congregations in their presbytery.
St. Francis in one of the gardens at Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. Photo credit: Don Cochran