Honouring God by caring for his creation. Engaging with God as we pray for his creation.
1 SEPTEMBER – 4 OCTOBER 2026
This year’s theme Living Water
From 1 September to 4 October each year, Christians and churches around the world unite to thank God, pray, and care for our common home. It’s a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through praise, thanksgiving, repentance, celebration, and commitment together.
The Season of Creation starts on the World Day of Prayer for Creation and finishes on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi — a saint known for his love and care for creation. We rejoice in this opportunity to safeguard our common home and all beings who share it with us. This year, the theme for the Season is “Living Water”, with the symbol “Immersion in Living Water”, inspired by Ezekiel 47:9 and 12.
The Biblical text for this year’s Season of Creation is drawn from Ezekiel 47:1–12, which portrays God’s life-giving water flowing from the temple of God. The river grows deeper and deeper — restoring barren land, reviving waters, and sustaining flourishing ecosystems. The vision invites human responsibility: recognising ecological damage and embracing our interconnectedness, we are called to immerse ourselves in the water, actively safeguarding and working for the renewal of creation so that environmental healing and human well-being may flourish together.
To enable our church family at Syndal Baptist Church to participate in this celebration, the Creation Care team have planned four activities and collected some resources. You can find these below.
GET INVOLVED
Sunday 6 September
Enjoy the art show in the West Auditorium foyer, featuring the creative work of our Tribe children.
Saturday 12 September • 11:00am–12 noon
Join the Creation Care team in the SBC car park at 11am to carry out a mini litter-pick. This will clean up the church car park, other outdoor areas and the immediate surrounds, followed by lunch together at a local eatery.
No need to register — just turn up! Anyone under 16 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.
Saturday 19 September • 10:00am–12:30pm
Exploration and creative fun for all ages at the Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary (La Trobe University) with A Rocha Australia and Scripture Union. Pack a picnic lunch and join us as we explore the sanctuary and discover how we’re connected to creation, each other, and to God in this native bushland, and get creative with nature. We may even spy the resident emus!
Registration will be necessary for this activity.
Register NowSaturday 3 October • 10:00am–1:00pm
Slow down and meander with us through the Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne. This guided reflective walk offers opportunities to encounter God together and in quiet moments of personal reflection. As we immerse ourselves in creation, we’ll explore and discover how God speaks through the world he has made. Come with open eyes and open hearts, expecting to hear from God as we slow down, take notice, and listen.
And these gardens are not to be missed — the award-winning, contemporary botanic garden and the surrounding 300 hectares of remnant native bushland is recognised as a site of State significance for plant and wildlife conservation, and is home to over 25 endangered, rare or threatened species.
season of creation
The Creation Care team invites you into a time of contemplation and reflection during this season, seeking afresh the wisdom contained in Scripture relating to the natural world and how we interact with it. The team has updated this daily Bible resource with companion questions, to guide individuals or small groups through this 2026 Season.
The relationship between faith and science affects our care for creation. This document has a few reflections by Rev. Dr Bill Brown, a Baptist Pastor, and a personal reflection by Paul Mattiske, a member of SBC.
Pour a coffee and pull up a chair to the fire, or rug up and listen to birdsong in the garden — and enjoy this selection of scripture, poems and quotes inspired by nature. Let your mind dwell on the beauty and power of God as displayed by the works of his hands. Psalm 104 has also been reimagined for Australia.
Reimagining Psalm 104 for our Australian context brings this song of praise to life with new meaning, as we listen to what God is saying to us through both his word and his world.
Our Creation Care Team have put together a series of 3 Life Group studies which you can use to grow in your understanding of God’s care for his creation.
BACKGROUND
September 1 was proclaimed as a Day of Prayer for Creation for the Eastern Orthodox Church by Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989. It was embraced by other major Christian European churches in 2001, and by Pope Francis for the Roman Catholic Church in 2015.
In recent years, many Christian churches have begun celebrating the “Season of Creation” between September 1 and October 4, the Feast of St. Francis — the Catholic saint of those who promote ecology, and author of the Canticle of the Creatures.
Text taken from seasonofcreation.org
AT SBC
Read about some of the great initiatives our Creation Care team have implemented at SBC in the last few years, and the impact they’ve had.
We love to worship the Creator God. We believe that one of the ways God reveals himself is through his creation, and that he has commissioned us to care for this world he lovingly made. Our Creation Care team exists to help us, as God’s church, to better enjoy God’s creation and better care for it.