For The Catholic Messenger
Coralville parish hosting Season of Creation events
St. Thomas More Parish in Coralville will have a number of activities to mark the 2026 Season of Creation. The Season calls attention to care for the earth and its natural systems. It began with the Laudato Si’ encyclical of Pope Francis in 2015. This year’s theme is “Living Water,” with focus on the universal right to adequate, clean, safe water. The public is welcome at all the events, at the church, 3000 12th Ave. in Coralville.
The film Groundswell: Restoring the Planet One Acre at a Time will be shown Sunday, September 13 at 3 PM in the parish social hall. It features renewable farming efforts around the world that lead to healthy soil, water, and air, and food.
Stations of the Cross with All Creation will take place Thursday, September 17 at 9:30 AM (after the 9:00 Mass) and at 6 PM. This ancient practice retraces the steps of Jesus in the context of the environmental crises of our times.
The Prayer for the International Day of Peace will be Tuesday, September 22 after the 9 AM Mass. It will be held around the peace pole at the front of the church.
The annual Blessing of the Animals/Pets will be Sunday, October 4 at 12:15 (after the 11 AM Mass). This blessing is held every year on or near the feast of St. Francis. All pets are invited.
There will be an Earth Care Retreat: Re-Bonding, Restoring Relationship in the Web of Life on Saturday, October 10 from 9 AM to 2 PM. The keynoter will be Connie Mutel, longtime Iowa prairie scientist and author of Tending Iowa’s Land: Pathways to a Sustainable Future. Connie will share her spiritual journey as a biologist and conservationist amid changes in our biome since the 1830s “sod busting.”
There will also be an interpretive walk in the parish woodlot, and two workshop sessions. Parishioners Tom Novak and Mike Hagerty will lead “What Can I Do in My Yard?” and Coralville arborist Virginia Hayes will tell about stormwater and woodlot management efforts and incentives for local residents. Lunch will be provided.
Connie has been captivated by nature since childhood. Trained as a plant ecologist, she has written over a dozen books on the natural world. These include The Emerald Horizon (on Iowa’s natural history) and A Sugar Creek Chronicle, a memoir of climate change. Before retirement, Connie was Senior Science Writer at the UI’s IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering.
She will share her efforts to educate about climate change and other environmental problems, efforts that are increasingly interwoven with Connie’s spiritual life. She’ll include information from her newest book, Tending Iowa’s Land: Pathways to a Sustainable Future, which examines agriculture’s influence on life and health. Connie and her husband live in an oak-hickory woodland north of Iowa City, which they are restoring to ecological health.
