Climate Commissioner for the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi, has asked every Anglican to consider how they will work together with other Christians to care for Creation this September.
“The Wansolwara Voyage Vakas remind us that we are all crew on the same canoe — one planet, one people, bound together by the ocean and by God’s call to protect it,” he said this week.
“This Season of Creation, I encourage every Anglican to give thanks for the gift of Creation, and to step forward in action — not alone, but in solidarity with our Pacific neighbours. Whether by planting trees, cleaning our coastlines, or advocating for climate justice, we sail together with faith and purpose toward a more just and sustainable future."
This year, the Diocese of Polynesia will lead prayer and action throughout the September ‘Season of Creation’, as churches in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa undertake beach and waterway clean-ups, tree and mangrove planting, and ecumenical prayers for Creation.
New this year is the chance to get behind the Anglican climate advocacy project for COP31 next year, the Wansolwara ‘One Planet, One People’ vaka voyages.
As the 2025 Season of Creation opens, 47 Anglican churches across Aotearoa New Zealand churches are registered as Eco Church parishes with Christian conservation NGO, ‘A Rocha’, demonstrating their commitment to work for Creation care. For others not registered, this Season is a great opportunity for more parishes to investigate joining the movement.
Anglican churches in Aotearoa New Zealand can support the Season of Creation by taking part in activities as diverse as prayers of thanksgiving for Creation, tree planting, or pest control, through to changing their own food, rubbish, water, heating or transport systems (or their town’s) to reduce waste and save carbon.
This year’s Season of Creation theme is “Work for Peace with Creation,” inspired by the prophet Isaiah’s vision of Creation renewed to health and flowing with abundant life.
Introducing the 2025 Season of Creation, Bishop Efraim Tendero from the World Evangelical Alliance set out today’s environmental predicament bluntly, “Humanity is waging war on Creation,” he said.
“Isaiah’s description of devastated cities and wastelands eloquently stresses the fact that human destructive behaviours have a negative impact on the earth.”
“[In Isaiah’s vision], humankind is in distress and the entire earth lies in ruin, from the palaces of the rich to the farmlands of the poor, from the threatened forests, to the depths of the oceans.”
This year's theme hails Isaiah's vision of an alternative in Isaiah 14-18, which sets a scene of complete restoration and peace – not only for Creation, but a peace with justice for all.
Pacific Conference of Churches General Secretary Rev James Bhagwan has linked the Season of Creation this year with the Catholic Church's call for a Year of Jubilee in 2025 – a time for forgiving sins and debts.
This year, Pacific churches are leading a campaign asking global leaders to release lower GDP countries from debts caused by climate change costs, as the lowest-income countries are now paying the recovery costs of climate disasters not of their own making.
"We invite everyone joining in this Season of Creation to join this call and tell decision makers that these unfair, unsustainable debts must be cancelled."
"Before we can live in peace with each other and with Creation, there must be a time of justice and reconciliation – and ending debt is one step on the road to that.
Anglican churches in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia looking for ideas and resources to contribute to the Season of Creation can follow the links below.
A Rocha: Practical Conservation Project ideas for Aotearoa NZ
Download the international Season of Creation Celebration Guide
Watch the international Season of Creation 2025 introductory video
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