Earth Day Reflection and Prayer

This year Earth Day and Good Friday fall on the same day, April 22.  Read the reflection, “Good Friday and Earth Day: A Providential Convergence” by William P. Brown and Stanley P. Saunders, who teach at Columbia Theological Seminary and are founding members of Earth Covenant Ministry,  a partnership among congregations of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.

Tomorrow, as we mark the day of Christ’s crucifixion and look toward Easter, let us also reflect on the suffering of creation and look forward with hope in resurrection and redemption.  How will we translate the joy of resurrection to the work of redemption for creation?

Earth Day Prayer

Dear Creator, as we look at your creation we feel wonder –

  Birds flying high,

  People working together in community,

  A web of life so intricate that we never could have  

  imagined it.

Help us see your hand in these joys of creation.

We raise concerns for your creation –

  Mountaintops blown off,

  Waters and skies polluted,

  Environmental toxins affecting us all, especially the most  

  vulnerable.

Help us acknowledge our complicity in this destruction –

  Our demand for energy,

  Our ever increasing consumption,

  Our inattention to justice.

Let us seek through you God, who created this earth and called it “good,” a path to greater community, justice, and peace.

Amen.

Find Earth Day Sunday Resources from the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program.  Celebrate Earth Day Sunday any Sunday.