by Tony O’Brien and St John Vianney Parish
Season of Creation at the Parish of St. John Vianney in North Leeds.
Our parish is currently gathering evidence for CAFOD’s LiveSimply Award. One of our nine actions is ‘to embed within our weekly and cyclic liturgies opportunities for collective prayer and reflection on living simply and our ecological conversion’.
Last year the parish LiveSimply team agreed a programme of liturgy with Canon Dennis, our parish priest, to celebrate the Season of Creation. After our LiveSimply team review with Canon Dennis, we agreed to repeat the same programme in our cycle of collective worship for this year’s Season of Creation (1st September – 4th October).
This included:
- Blessing our (embryonic) Laudato Si Garden and the grounds of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHOM), which took place on 7th September after the 9.30 mass. Fr. Peter Rosser, a visiting priest, was pleased to do this for us and encouraged parishioners to participate.
- An outdoor mass was planned for Wednesday 17 September (12 noon) at the IHOM, but unfortunately the inclement weather meant that Fr. Yemane had to celebrate the mass inside the church. (The weather last year was fine)
- The altars at both churches (IHOM and St Paul’s) were adorned with flowers and plants for the weekend of 20-21st Sept. These were prepared by church’s flower arrangers, members of the LiveSimply team and school children.
- Parishioners were invited to bring Gifts of Creation to all six weekend masses over weekend of 20-21 September. Flowers, plants, seeds and fruit were brought and tokens were presented at the Offertory.
- Prayers of the Faithful for all masses were prepared by members of the LiveSimply team highlighting care for creation, the environment and global injustice.
- The monthly Celebration of Later Life mass and SVP lunch was held on 25th September at which the gifts of creation were distributed among the attendees. We shared the purpose of the Season of Creation with everyone and the gifts were really appreciated.
- Parish prayer groups were invited to publicise their focus on the Season of Creation in their prayer and reflection meetings during the month.
- All these actions were publicised in the parish LiveSimply September leaflet with references to the ecumenical Season of Creation and Church teaching in Laudato Si’.
We really appreciate all the efforts made by clergy and administrative staff, the mass welcomers and parish teams responsible for our parish participation in this year’s Season of Creation. We are happy to share our experiences with other parishes on their LiveSimply journey.
In addition, on Sunday 5th October we held our annual Celebration of Hospitality and Belonging at St Paul’s after the 10am mass. This again proved to be a very happy and joyous occasion, sharing food and conviviality, whilst celebrating the qualities of warmth, community and inclusion.
