From the Rector - September 2025 - Creation Sunday 

Around the world, many churches will be celebrating the wonder of Creation on the 7th of September and considering the theme of Creation in the weeks afterwards, which are called the Season of Creation. This practice was inspired by a tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, then embraced by the World Council of Churches in 2008. 

The first Sunday of September is a day to repent of our sinful and wanton destruction of nature, God’s gift of creation. It is a day to pray for changes to human behaviour, for the healing of the natural world and  for our relationship to it. It honours God as Creator and commemorates the creation of all that exists, from the smallest particles to the greatest wonders of the cosmos. 1700 years ago, the Christian Church held a Council at Nicaea, which proclaimed the trinitarian God to be “the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth”, Christ “through whom all things were made”, and the Holy Spirit, “the giver of life”. Our dependence on God’s gift of the created order is reflected many times in the Bible too. The Bible’s story of humanity begins in a beautiful garden called Eden. The last Book of the Bible is Revelation, which speaks about the heavenly city of Jerusalem. This New Jerusalem is not concrete, steel and glass, but has nature at its heart. So the Bible’s very last chapter begins by describing, ‘the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’.

 Creation Sunday is a moment to thank and praise God our Creator. In Stonesfield and Combe on Sunday 7th September we will share All Age Worship services at 9.30am in Combe and 11am in Stonesfield, and invite everybody attending to bring something reflecting the natural world which has inspired them this year. Please join us!

Revd Ralph Williamson - Rector