Joseph E. Bush Jr. - Worshiping in Season: Ecology and Christ through the Liturgical Year

Joseph E. Bush, Jr. brings international experience as a preacher and teacher to this book on Christian worship. He takes an ecological perspective on the liturgical seasons celebrating Christs presence on Earth. Ordained a United Methodist minister, he has served in pastoral ministry in New Jersey, New Zealand, and on two preaching circuits in the Republic of Fiji. He is currently pastor at Sparta Hill United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church in Evergreen, Alabama. He has taught in the areas of ethics, worship, and practice of ministry in a variety of denominational and cultural contexts: New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, the ecumenical Pacific Theological College in Fiji, the Presbyterian School of Ministry in New Zealand, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and currently as Professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Ecology and ecological health have been of ongoing concern to him in his approach to worship and ministry, and he served as Coordinator for the Washington Theological Consortiums Certificate in Ecology and Theology. He is active in the Society of Christian Ethics, the Ecology and Liturgy Seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy, and is a former Chairperson of the Association for Theological Field Education. He is the author of two other books: Practical Theology in Church and Society and Gentle Shepherding: Pastoral Ethics and Leadership. He has also enjoyed playing 5-string banjo in the band, Little Falls, an acoustic praise band for Westmoreland United Church of Christ and the house band for the Little Falls Watershed Alliance.

Ecology and Christ through the Liturgical Year

Joseph E. Bush Jr.

AN ALBAN INSTITUTE BOOK

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright 2021 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted in the text, all Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are from Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB) New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Excerpts from the English translation of Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1989, 2012, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bush, Joseph Earl, 1956 author.

Title: Worshiping in season : ecology and Christ through the liturgical year /Joseph E. Bush, Jr.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and indExod | Summary: Worshiping in Season guides ministers through a meaningful framework for ecologically oriented worship. Following the liturgical calendar and maintaining a Christocentric emphasis, Joseph E. Bush Jr. aligns earthly seasons with the liturgy and suggests readings, songs, and other acts of worship to amplify an ecologically informed ChristologyProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021035437 (print) | LCCN 2021035438 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538121986 (cloth : paper) | ISBN 9781538121993 (pbk : paper) | ISBN 9781538122006 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Public worship. | Church year. | EcologyReligious aspectsChristianity.

Classification: LCC BV30 .B87 2021 (print) | LCC BV30 (ebook) | DDC 263/.9dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021035437

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021035438

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/ NISO Z39.48-1992.

Dedicated to the diverse and diversely gifted church of Jesus Christ
gathered weekly in worship and praise,
and sent daily into Gods Spirt-graced creation
to seek social justice and ecological flourishing.

Pentecost 2021

Celebrating Christ and Creation

Every Sunday throughout the year, Christians congregate in the name of Christ to worship our namesake. Every day throughout the year, these same Christians awaken with fellow creatures to a world of Gods making. Embodied in this world we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell the bounty of blessings brought by God. But we taste bitterness as well as blessing. We spend our moments seeking security in a world of flux. We not only worry for ourselves, but we also worry for our neighborsboth known and unknown, both near and farand we worry for the well-being of our fellow creatures and for the earth itself. Increasingly we seek an elusive harmony between ourselves and others, between our species and our planet, between our past and our posterity, between our spirituality and our flesh. How can we connect our worshipful life in Christ with our wonderful/worrisome life in creation?

This book brings our ecological concern and consciousness into consideration of corporate worship during the two great liturgical movements of the ecumenical Christian yearthe Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle and the Lent-Easter-Pentecost cycle. Both of these cycles revolve around momentous Christic eventsChrists incarnation and Christs crucifixion and resurrection. How do we view these events and the seasons of worship surrounding these events as ecological beings, as earthlings? How might these Christo-logical dramas pertain to the planet and not only to the people on the planet?

My aim here is to remember the ecological and ecospheric context in which our Christological claims occurthey happen on Earth and with earthly creatures. We are here. So, too, is the gospel of Christ. How might the gospel of Christ be good news for the earth? How is Christs story Earths story? How is our earthly reality equally real for Christ? How does the earth factor into whatever God might be doing in Christ? How does Christ reveal Gods activity in the earth? Moreover, how can we highlight Earths role in this Christological drama as enacted and remembered in our annual cycles of worship?

This book, hopefully, is in alliance with another approach to incorporating ecological concern into Christian worship. That approach is to designate a particular season as having a theme of creation. The season of creation is a special liturgical season emphasizing creation that has been established with considerable ecumenical contribution. It usually spans five weeks, beginning September 1 on which many Orthodox communities commemorate Gods creation of the world as a day of prayer for creation. The season of creation concludes on or near October 4 when the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Saint Francis. In 2008, the World Council of Churches Central Committee issued a call for such a Time for Creation through prayers and actions. Since then, many Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant congregations have observed this liturgical season. The seasonal emphasis has encouraged great creativity throughout the Christian churches in developing creation-oriented worship resources and for encouraging creation care.