Season of Creation

Every year beginning in October, my church the Episcopal Church of Sts. Andrew and Matthew in Wilmington DE, celebrates the Season of Creation for seven Sundays. Each week the theme is different, the music is different and the readings are different.

This past Sunday the theme was The Planet Earth and second reading was from the 1854 Treaty Oration of Chief Seattle. The next paragraph is from the Home page of the website devoted to Chief Seattle , www.chiefseattle.com.

Although we call him “Chief” Seattle, there were no hereditary chiefs among the Puget Sound Indians. Strong leaders arose in each village from time to time who, distinguishing themselves by the actions or particular skills, were respected and followed. For instance, there were fishing leaders, peacetime leaders, and leaders in times of crisis. Chief Seattle was one of those. In addition to his leadership skills and his ability to understand what the white settler's intentions were, he was also a noted orator in his native language. At the presentation of the treaty proposals in 1854, Chief Seattle delivered a magnificent speech, which is widely remembered today. It is the speech of a man who has seen his world turned upside down in his own lifetime: as a boy, he had seen Vancouver’s ships, and when he died the treaty protests were still going on.

Here is an excerpt from his oration:

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.

Every shiny pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect

All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood the courses through our veins. We are a part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers.

The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and humanity, all belong to the same family.

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children.
So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother.

The air is very precious to us, the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his firs breath, also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children?

That the earth is our mother?

The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.

All things are connected like the blood that unites us all.

Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

We ended with this prayer.

O Loving Creator, you have nourished us from the grain and from the vine, the bread and cup of Christ: Now send us forth prompted by your Spirit to listen for the Earth's many cries for justice, and to stand with you in the world as instruments for the healing of our planet: we pray in Christ's most sacred name.

Amen.