This spring, the Consultation on Common Texts published an update to the Revised Common Lectionary: It added the Feast of Creation in Christ on September 1, offering biblical texts and other materials for use starting with the current church year. It’s a milestone in a decades-long ecumenical process. In 1989, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople issued an invitation to “the whole Christian world” to join the Orthodox in observing September 1—known in the Eastern church as the Feast of the Indiction—as a day of prayer for creation. Over time, this day of prayer was adopted by various churches and ecumenical groups as Creation Day, along with a companion Season of Creation spanning September and early October.
In 2024, a group of church leaders and scholars began a series of meetings in Assisi, Italy, about the prospect of the whole Christian world joining the Orthodox in elevating September 1 to the status of an official feast day. Along with CCT, the project’s steering committee included the World Council of Churches, the Middle East Council of Churches, and several world communions. The fruit of their efforts—a proposal for the Feast of Creation in Christ—would be the first time the Western church adopted an Eastern feast in more than 500 years.
Liturgical theologian Kimberly Belcher participated in the Feast of Creation meetings in Assisi. She teaches at the University of Notre Dame, represents the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in ecumenical dialogues, and is coauthor of One Baptism—One Church? She spoke to the century in June.
