“Worship is a symbiotic relationship between God and the worshipping community. God is giving and acting, and worshippers are responding in faith. Although the word ‘worship’ implies that it is predominantly about what we do, worship is really preeminently about what God is doing. God is actively present in all of God’s Trinitarian fullness—forgiving, offering God?s self in the proclamation of the Word through scripture and preaching, healing and restoring through the sacramental bread and wine, blessing the community, and commissioning worshipers to carry out God?s work in the world.

In the past, our worship has focused mainly on the relationship between God and humans. In recent years, however, we have become more attuned to the extraordinary number of references throughout our traditions of worship to God as the creator and to a concern for the well-being of other creatures. We have begun to lift up these traditions and to give them prominence. In addition, new editions of hymnals and weekly resources for worship in many denominations are bringing to the fore God’s relationship with all creation and our relationship with the rest of creation. We now are on the cusp of articulating theologies of worship that fully integrate creation and of developing even more liturgical resources to bring fundamental change to the worshipers’ relationship with God and with the rest of nature. ”

— The Season of Creation: A Preaching Commentary, Norman Habel, David Rhoads, and H. Paul Santmire, Editors (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011) , p. 16.