The European Christian Environmental European Network (ECEN), an ecumenical pressure group linked to the Conference of European Church (CEC), has asked for more space to be reserved for reflection on the protection of the environment in Church calendars. ECEN made its plea in a press release issued at the end of a consultation held in Geneva from 2 to 6 April, in which 25 theologians and liturgists from all over Europe and from all church traditions participated. “We have reaffirmed the proposal to establish a ‘Creation Time’ within the Christian calendar”, said the Swiss theologian Lukas Vischer, who chaired the consultation. “We are determined to re-launch ‘Creation Time’ in view of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu in 2007”. ECEN has thus taken up the invitation repeatedly made by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople to celebrate 1st September as a day of thanksgiving for the gift of creation and of prayer for its protection.
