Hope and Lament at St Paul’s Symonds Street
Story by Millie Vette.
Hope and grief are deeply connected. If we want to live with hope for the future - especially in a time of ecological crisis - we must learn to grieve well. While this is often done on a personal level, we are missing out deeply on the practice of communal lament.
Earlier this year, I joined my home church of St Paul’s for a service focused on lament for creation. For many people in the room, this was a completely new experience - lamenting not just as individuals, but together as a community. And specifically, lamenting the loss of creation.
The service followed an Anglican liturgical pattern, featuring both communal and individual prayers that reflected the joys and sorrows of creation, globally and here in Aotearoa. As we entered the space, we were given a liturgy booklet and a leaf to hold and offer during the Prayers of the People and Preparation of the Gifts.
Three members of St Paul’s Creation Care Kaihāpai team led the Prayers of the People - offering original prayers for the world, our nation, and the local church. Each prayer held together lament for what has been lost, gratitude for what we still delight in, and hope for what we long to see restored. At the end of each prayer, we sang together:
Heal this land,
Mend what’s broken,
Show us where we stand,
Lead us where we’re going.(Song lyrics by Rachel Mawdsley)
After the Preparation of the Gifts and the Great Thanksgiving, we were invited to come forward - not first to receive communion, but to offer our leaf at the foot of one of three trees. Only then did we go on to receive communion and return to our seats. The act of placing the leaf symbolised our surrender of grief, hopes, and prayers for creation to God. Then, in the Eucharist, we received again from the One who renews and sustains us.
The evening concluded with supper and conversation.
The service was held at the beginning of autumn, a time when the Earth begins to rest and the trees shed their leaves. Holding this service during this seasonal shift felt especially appropriate. The falling leaves mirrored the grief we felt for the loss of biodiversity, ecosystems, and species.
Andrew Shamy often speaks of the importance of grieving when he speaks about hope. And this lament service was a profound opportunity to embody that - to gather as a community and share in our sadness about deforestation, rising sea levels, and species loss, while clinging to hope.
Some may ask: why is it important to grieve as a community, rather than just personally?
Many of us in the A Rocha whānau already feel this grief. But we often don’t feel like there’s anyone to share it with. It can be an isolating experience - feeling the weight of ecological loss in communities that don’t acknowledge it.
While many who attended the service are not part of the St Paul’s Creation Care Kaihāpai group, inviting them into a time of communal lament created an opportunity to share that burden - and showed that the church does care about the world God made.
When I speak with churches, I often talk about the need to hold practical action alongside worship and relationship with God.
Noah Guthrie, A Rocha USA’s Nashville Conservation Coordinator, explores this well in an article for The Ecological Disciple titled “Practical Earthkeeping: Cultural Formation and the Church” He writes:
“One thing I appreciate about the Churches of Restoration program (Eco Church program) is that it requires each church to design a minimum of two creation care projects: one related to spiritual formation, the other to practical action. By insisting on action, we push back on the temptation to just add ‘sustainability’ to the list of issues we discuss at Bible studies, and by insisting on spiritual formation, we affirm that effective environmental action begins with inner transformation.”
While the Eco Church Aotearoa network does not currently require churches to create two projects, Guthrie’s vision is exactly the kind of integrated discipleship I hope to see. St Paul’s offers us a beautiful example of this, holding together grief, worship, and hope in the presence of God.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to love what God loves. That includes the Earth and all its creatures. But we cannot love without also grieving what is being lost, and hoping for what can still be restored.
St Paul’s shows us that communal lament is not only possible, but necessary. It opens the way for renewal, action, and deep spiritual formation. We must leave room for God to transform and sustain us in this work, because we will only burn out if we try to carry it alone.
