On Rogation Day, Sunday May 17th, St. Columb’s Church and St. Andrew’s Cathedral hosted “A Prayer for the Earth” at a picnic shelter at Mayes Lake in LeFleur’s Bluff State Park.
The Rev. Brian Seage came with his wife the Rev. Kyle Dice Seage, and daughters Betsy and Katie to lead a short prayer service late that afternoon. After the prayer, the girls planted several clumps of Louisiana Iris at the edge of the smaller lake. St. Andrew’s seniors Claire Whitehurst and Ryan Moon helped them by digging the holes. These purple Iris are native plants and were moved from a remote slough in the park’s river swamp to this spot where they can be seen and enjoyed. Those who attended can visit the spot next spring to see if the Irises prospered in their new home.
At the Annual Council of 2008, a resolution was passed which encouraged all priests to give sermons on the subject of earth stewardship on Rogation Day. The stewardship message was originally to be given on the Sunday closest to Earth Day, but we are the Episcopal Church, not the secular “Church of What’s Happening Now”. So, since the church calendar has long had a day for special prayers for blessings for the land and crops, the resolution was changed to target Rogation day, the fifth Sunday after Easter.
When I worked at our committee’s stewardship booth in the display hall at this year’s council, I met church people who told me that Rogation Day is a big deal for some churches in Mississippi. A few churches in the delta, and probably in other farming regions, have Rogation Day services on someone’s farm, and they have lots of good food as part of the celebration. Even though we think of Mississippi as a rural state, only a handful of Episcopal Churches have Rogation day services that maintain this type of connection to the land.
As the Seage girls demonstrated, it’s possible to get your fingers and toes in the mud and really feel the earth, even in the middle of a city. I encourage your church to figure out a way to have a Rogation Day next spring. As part of it you can also have a picnic that doesn’t send plastic cups, plates and bottles to the landfill afterwards. Even eating on the church’s washable kitchenware could be a good and simple thing to do for Rogation day.
