Ancient feast day comes to the UCC: Historic addition to the RCL is not another Earth Day

Colorful backpacks, pristine sneakers, and blank notebooks. September is a month of new beginnings as school gets underway.

For the United Church of Christ and its ecumenical siblings this month brings something new as well: the Feast of Creation in Christ has been added to the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). This is the first addition since the 1983 placement of Christ the King in November and the Baptism of Our Lord in early January.

The Consultation of Common Texts (CCT) recently adopted the ancient Orthodox celebration, held on Sept. 1, placing it on the first Sunday of the month.

The feast’s 2026 debut will be Sept. 6, dovetailing with the Season of Creation which runs Sept. 1 to the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4.

The Consultation of Common Texts is also calling the feast day, “Creation in Christ.”

“CCT adopted the name ‘Creation in Christ’ to reflect the often-overlooked presence of Christ at Creation as well as the continuing creative acts of the divine,” explained Rev. Cheryl A. Lindsay, the UCC’s Minister for Worship and Theology.

Lindsay was part of the global ecumenical effort to add the feast day to the RCL — a process that didn’t happen overnight.

“Three years ago, the work to include Creation in Christ began. As the United Church of Christ representative to the Consultation on Common Texts, which stewards the Revised Common Lectionary, I became involved in the CCT’s humbling task of recommending the texts that would be used not only in the 27 denominations that formally follow the RCL, but that would be recommended for the wider church, including Free Church and Catholic traditions,” she said.

Work that has paid off, bringing the body of Christ closer together in an increasingly fractured world.

Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm of the World Council of Churches, who chaired the Feast of Creation ecumenical process, was reported saying that the feast day is a “huge milestone” and “truly historic step” toward Christian unity and is “theologically profound, liturgically sound, pastorally urgent, and ecumenically unprecedented.”  

Not another Earth Day

Lindsey said that the collective hope of the group in adopting a new feast that upholds God’s handiwork is that “Creation would be celebrated on par with the Incarnation and the Resurrection.”

She also stressed that Creation in Christ is not another Earth Day.

 “This is a day to proclaim God as Creator — past, present and future. And in doing so, we can reflect upon our responsibility as co-creators as well as our response as beneficiaries,” said Lindsey.

The Feast Steering Committee is asking local churches celebrating Creation in Christ Sunday to send video and pictures to commemorate this historic day. Click here for how and where to send submission.

A Creation in Christ communications toolkit is also available here to educate and promote the feast day. For UCC liturgical resources on the Worship Ways main web page, click here.

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Photo by Carrie Harris of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.