FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH
What happens when we stop for a moment and really look at the world around us?
THE SEASON OF CREATION JOURNEY
WONDER. GRATITUDE. RENEWAL. HOPE.
What happens when we stop for a moment and really look at the world around us?
From the changing colours of the countryside and the landscapes we know so well, to the food on our tables and the people with whom we share our lives, there is beauty all around us. Yet we also know that our world is far from perfect. Alongside beauty we encounter damage, loss and uncertainty – but also renewal, generosity and reasons for hope.
From Sunday 6th September to Sunday 4th October, our five-week sermon series, For the Beauty of the Earth, will invite us to explore these different threads and consider our own place within the story of creation. This isn’t something that only we are doing - the whole church is celebrating through September as we join other churches across the UK and around the world to celebrate the Season of Creation,.
Rather than beginning with environmental issues or with everything we feel we ought to be doing, the series begins somewhere much simpler: with wonder. It encourages us first to notice, appreciate and enjoy creation as a gift, before thinking about what our response to that gift might be.
A journey through five themes
Across the five Sundays, we'll follow a journey from Creation → Brokenness → Renewal → Gratitude → Hope, with each week offering a different way of looking at the world and our relationship with it.
6 September – The Beauty of Creation
We begin by rediscovering wonder. What changes when we see the world not simply as something to be used, but as a gift to be received and enjoyed?
13 September – The Beauty that has been Wounded
Beauty and brokenness often sit side by side. This week acknowledges honestly that the world is not always as it should be, while asking where healing and hope might be found.
20 September – The Beauty of a Renewed Humanity
Our attention turns from the world around us to ourselves. If we want to see renewal in the world, what sort of people do we need to become? The focus is on transformation, character and how changed hearts can lead to changed lives.
27 September – The Beauty of Gratitude | Harvest Festival
At the heart of the series comes our Harvest Festival, celebrated as a special All-Age Service. Harvest gives us an opportunity to come together as a community, celebrate the abundance around us and explore how gratitude can lead naturally to generosity.
4 October – The Beauty of Hope
We finish by looking forward. In a world where it can sometimes be easier to focus on what is going wrong, our final week asks what it means to choose hope and to believe that renewal is possible.
Listen each week to the talk
Come and discover it with us
For the Beauty of the Earth is ultimately an invitation to notice more: to look again at familiar places, appreciate what we have, think about how we live and discover reasons for hope.
Whether church is already part of your life, you haven't been for a long time, or you've simply never thought it was for you, you are very welcome to join us for any or all of the journey.
