Chatham Hall Celebrates Creation Care, a Cornerstone of our Episcopal Identity

At Chatham Hall, caring for the world around us begins with recognizing the beauty, value, and interconnectedness of all living things. Throughout October, students and faculty embraced this responsibility through a month of Creation Care programming, including Blessing of the Animals, an outdoor contemplative walk, an outdoor creative play program, and a Chapel service in St. Mary’s. Rooted in our Episcopal identity, these experiences invited our community to deepen our connection to the natural world and reflect on our shared responsibility to care for the Earth and one another. The culmination of this programming was the chapel service on Tuesday, October 27, bringing together lessons, reflections, and practices inspired by the beauty of creation.

Episcopal schools often observe the Season of Creation, also known as Creationtide, from September 1 through October 4. This year, Chatham Hall extended its observance through October, inviting students to fully experience the natural world in different settings and in a variety of ways.

October chapel programming encouraged students and staff alike to pay attention, engage, and consider their relationship with the world around them. As chapel serves as a foundational praxis of learning for our community, services offered opportunities to experience the beauty of Chatham Hall’s campus and engage in multiple outdoor rituals and practices.  The campus-wide instructional walking meditation offered insight into a practice that can be readily used. “Creative Play” blended the physical and mental rewards of nature with spiritual grounding and community connection. 

The concluding service in St. Mary’s Chapel brought these experiences together through readings, prayers, poetry, and student reflections representing different perspectives. From the beauty of Emily Dickinson’s poetry to an excerpt from The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, a medieval Georgian poem by Shota Rustaveli, students explored the ways people across cultures have expressed wonder and gratitude for creation.

A reading from Genesis invited the community to consider humanity’s role in caring for the Earth. Chaplain Barksdale encouraged students to look more closely at the word dominion and its implications for how we understand our responsibility to other living things.

“What if we are meant not to dominate or subjugate, but to steward?” she asked, inviting students to reflect on how this understanding might shape the way they live.

The message was clear: caring for creation means recognizing the worth of the world around us and accepting our responsibility to protect, nurture, and heal our common home.

Some of the most memorable reflections came from students and faculty who shared how their everyday experiences had changed the way they see the natural world. Kal Woldemeskel reflected on ahimsa, a central principle of Jainism that calls for nonviolence and doing no harm. Inspired by a classroom discussion about mosquitoes and our responsibility toward other living things, Kal considered how easily we judge the world from our own perspective without understanding the lives of the creatures around us.

Odette Kugler shared her own journey toward greater compassion for insects and other small creatures. After discovering insects trapped inside a classroom, she began practicing catch-and-release, helping them return safely outdoors rather than allowing them to remain trapped inside. Her reflection reminded the community that caring for creation does not always require grand gestures. Sometimes, it begins with a small change in how we respond to the world around us.

These stories invited students to consider practical ways to put Creation Care into action, from treating living things with greater compassion to making more thoughtful choices in everyday life.

Creation Care at Chatham Hall extends beyond environmental stewardship. It also reflects a commitment to the dignity of every human being and the responsibility we share to care for one another.

Through prayers and reflections, the community was reminded that the Earth is our shared home and that our choices affect both the natural world and the people with whom we share it. A responsive adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer connected faith with stewardship, calling attention to the dangers of exploitation and the importance of justice, peace, and care for future generations.

The service concluded with a community prayer expressing gratitude for the earth beneath us, the seasons we experience, and the connections that sustain us. Together, students and faculty renewed their commitment to care for the Earth and one another “unconditionally, gratefully, tenderly.”

At Chatham Hall, learning extends beyond the classroom and into the ways students engage with their community and the world. The month of Creation Care offered an opportunity to connect faith, reflection, and daily practice, encouraging students to consider not only what they believe but how those beliefs shape their actions. By making time to notice the natural world, listen to different perspectives, and reflect on their shared responsibilities, students were reminded that meaningful change can begin with a single choice.

As the community carries these lessons forward, the invitation remains: to see the world with wonder, to recognize the value of every living thing, and to live as thoughtful stewards of the Earth and compassionate members of a shared community.