Published on: 25/08/2026
Next Tuesday will mark the beginning of Creationtide, celebrated by Christians in the Church of England and around the world as a time to recognise God as the creator and sustainer of life. The Diocese Prayer Community will be taking a special focus, and church schools around the Diocese may gather together for themed assemblies.
The past forty years have seen the conversation about caring for the environment grow in importance and complexity, as issues such as climate change and the impact of pollution have been scientifically studied and reported. However, creation care has informed the Christian worldview for far longer. As early as the first chapter of Genesis, the Bible recognises the created world as good, and so many of the Psalms and prophetic writers use natural themes to articulate God’s power, beauty, and glory. When we care for the earth as Christians, we are expressing the truth that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1); we’re taking scripture literally and witnessing to the sovereignty of God.
Many stories about St. Francis of Assisi, as well as his own writings, illustrate his love of nature. For eight hundred years, the Franciscan Rule of Life has guided its adherents to perceive human beings as part of the created order and prioritise simple living that has a lesser impact on the earth. Francis himself was named the patron saint of ecology in 1979.
However, the earth is not simply valuable because God has made it. It is valuable because it is the source of all the resources that every human being shares. In Europe, we’ve just experienced a summer of drought, wildfires, and the devastation of public parks. Pollution, natural disasters and extreme weather linked to climate change have produced fatal results around the world, such as famine, the poisoning of water supplies, and the destruction of livelihoods.
Climate change knows no borders, so it is not the case that damage to the environment in one place does not affect the environment of another. The word ‘ecology’ comes from the Greek term ‘oikos’, which the New Testament writers use to describe a household. The people within a household are connected to one another because they share resources: as all human beings share the earth as the God-given source for all our resources, we all belong to the same oikos. Therefore, love of the earth and love of humanity are not separate loves; care for one constitutes care for the other. We could even say that caring for the environment is a way of loving our neighbours.
In a time when many people are concerned, frustrated, angry or depressed about this issue, our response to the climate emergency can be a powerful witness to God’s sovereignty, his love for all he has made, and our hope for a new earth to come. As Howard Snyder writes in his Salvation Means Creation Healed,
“Mission that incorporates creation care is simply more persuasive. Do we want people to come to faith in Jesus as Savior of the world? Then we should proclaim and show that Jesus is the renewer of all creation, the whole face of the earth. Salvation is that big. This is a grander portrayal of Christ than we sometimes present. It both honors our Savior and makes the gospel more persuasive when we present a gospel of total healing – the healing of creation; the restoration of all things.”
This year’s Creationtide will run from 1 September to 4 October. To find out more about the Diocese of Sheffield’s environmental work, see our Environment and Climate Change page. If you would like to explore more about the role Creation Care can play in discipleship and Rule of Life, don’t hesitate to contact Joe or Hannah at lightsforchrist@sheffield.anglican.org.
This week’s blog post has been written by Joe Goodchild, Assistant Lights for Christ Enabler