Gullah/Geechees Flow into Living Water and Sacred Responsibility: World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ September 1, 2026 ♦ 1 Comment

Join Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation on the World Day of Prayer

September 1 marks the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, a time when people throughout the world unite in prayer, reflection and action on behalf of the Earth and all living beings. This sacred observance also opens the Season of Creation, which continues through October 4—the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.

This year’s observance carries particular significance for the Gullah/Geechee Nation. At Noon Eastern Time on September 1, 2026, Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, will provide the keynote address for Creation Justice Ministries’ online World Day of Prayer and Season of Creation webinar. Queen Quet will share the spiritual and cultural relationship that Gullah/Geechee people have maintained with water from generation to generation.

The webinar is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Green Chalice and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Registration and additional information are available through Creation Justice Ministries.

How the World Day of Prayer for Creation Began

The roots of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation reach back to 1989. Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed September 1 as a day for Orthodox Christians to pray for the environment and the protection of creation. September 1 is also the beginning of the Orthodox liturgical year.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who became widely known as the “Green Patriarch,” continued and expanded this commitment by consistently connecting Christian faith with ecological responsibility. The World Council of Churches subsequently helped broaden the single day into the Season of Creation, an ecumenical observance lasting from September 1 through October 4.

In 2015, Pope Francis formally established September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation within the Roman Catholic Church. The observance has since grown into a worldwide Christian movement calling people not only to pray for creation but also to take “prayerful action” to defend it. Creation Justice Ministries’ history of the observance emphasizes that prayer opens people to divine guidance, strengthens community and prepares hearts and minds for transformation.

The World Day of Prayer reminds us that environmental justice is not separate from spiritual life. Caring for the Earth is a sacred responsibility. Polluted water, destroyed wetlands, disappearing forests, contaminated soil and climate disasters are not simply environmental problems. They are moral and spiritual crises that affect human health, cultural survival and the lives of generations yet unborn.

The 2026 Theme: “Living Water”

The 2026 Season of Creation theme is “Living Water.” It is drawn from Ezekiel 47:1–12, in which the prophet witnesses water flowing from the sanctuary. What begins as a small stream grows deeper and deeper as it moves across the land. Wherever the river flows, damaged waters are healed, trees bear fruit and living creatures flourish.

The scripture presents water as a divine source of restoration:

“Everything will live where the river goes.”
• Ezekiel 47:9

The World Council of Churches describes this vision as one of ecological healing and renewed human responsibility. The river does not merely serve humanity. It restores an interconnected world of land, water, plants, animals and people.

The theme is deeply relevant to the Gullah/Geechee Nation. Gullah/Geechee culture was born and sustained within a landscape of Sea Islands, salt marshes, rivers, creeks, sounds and the Atlantic Ocean. Water carried African ancestors into the region during the Maafa, but water also sustained their descendants. The waterways supported fishing, crabbing, shrimping, rice cultivation, boat building, healing traditions, ceremonies and the movement of Gullah/Geechee families between the islands.

These waters are living cultural corridors. They carry memories, traditions and ancestral knowledge. Protecting them is essential to protecting Gullah/Geechee cultural continuation.

Queen Quet Brings the Voice of the Gullah/Geechee Nation

Queen Quet’s keynote for Creation Justice Ministries will bring an essential Indigenous and Gullah/Geechee perspective to this international season of prayer.

Since her election as the first Chieftess and Head-of-State of the Gullah/Geechee Nation in 2000, Queen Quet has worked continuously to protect Gullah/Geechee land, waterways, sacred sites, cultural traditions and human rights. Her advocacy has repeatedly demonstrated that environmental justice and cultural justice cannot be separated.

For Gullah/Geechee people, rising seas, wetland destruction, coastal overdevelopment, toxic pollution, destructive dredging and the loss of traditional access to waterways are also threats to cultural survival. When the waters are poisoned or privatized, fishing traditions are endangered. When marshes are filled and forests are cleared, burial grounds and sacred landscapes are placed at risk. When land is taken from traditional communities, generations of ecological knowledge are displaced along with the people who carry it.

Queen Quet’s keynote will illuminate the Gullah/Geechee spiritual and cultural connection to water and call participants to recognize water as sacred—not simply as a commodity to be controlled, polluted or sold.

Let the Living Water Flow

The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation calls us to do more than speak about environmental problems. It calls us to enter the living waters of responsibility.

We must pray, but our prayers must flow into action. We must defend clean water, protect wetlands, preserve cultural landscapes, support communities confronting environmental injustice and teach future generations that human beings are part of creation—not masters standing above it.

As the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition reminds the world:

“Hunnuh mus tek cyare de root fa heal de tree.”

If we care for the roots—our faith, culture, land, water and ancestral wisdom—the tree can continue to grow. Queen Quet often points out that the Gullah/Geechee tree is the tree that is planted by the rivers of water and shall not be moved. On this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, may we become like the river envisioned by Ezekiel: carrying healing into damaged places, restoring life and allowing justice to flow from generation to generation.

Join Queen Quet and Creation Justice Ministries online at Noon Eastern Time on September 1, 2026. Learn more and register for the World Day of Prayer webinar.

Living water is sacred water. Sacred water is life.

Tek cyare de wata! We da de wata and de wata da we!