Pollinator Sunday 2025

Worship Resources

Find this Pollinator Sunday Worship Resource page in GoogleDocs for a downloadable document, including a printable mandala, coloring sheet, images for advertising.

Included in this page:

Ideas for Celebrating Pollinator Sunday

Bulletin Inserts & Projection Slides

Suggested Hymns

• Alternative Suggestions:

• Additional Stanza: Can You Feel the Seasons Turning (ACS 1065)

• Recorded Hymns from the National Lutheran Choir

• Lyrics for Gathering Hymn:  “For All Things Worth Praising”

Pollinator Liturgy Elements

• Invocation

• Pollinator Litany

• Prayer of the Day

• Prayer Petition

• Children's sermon based on Pollinator Plot Mandala

• Sermon Resources

• Benediction

• Sending

Blessing of Pollinator Plots

• Blessing of the Pollinator Plot 2024

Ideas for Celebrating Pollinator Sunday

Consider worshiping outdoors!  

If you are worshiping indoors, consider bringing inside some native pollinator friendly plants which can be transplanted after the worship service.  Invite people to bring gardening implements, even a wheelbarrow for a procession. 

Coloring page with pollinator species is available for children and adults. Consider having this available for people to take as they enter worship or during education/coffee hour.

Show the Pollinator Congregation video featuring many of the pollinator sanctuaries in our synod during the offering or as a prelude.  

Take pictures! Share them in your newsletter and on Facebook, and send them to ecofaith@nemnsynod.org.  

For Pollinator Sanctuary Congregations, display the Pollinator Yard Sign and the poster.

If your congregation is, or is becoming, a Monarch Way Station, remember that there are signs for these too, a program of Monarch Watch Program. Go to: https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/

If possible, go outside to do a blessing for pollinators and pollinator habitat.  You could “plant” or “replant” the Pollinator Yard Sign. After the blessing of the plot, seeds or seedlings could be planted.  

Consider inviting a member of your congregation or community with knowledge of healthy native pollinator habitat to give a “temple talk” or a brief talk outdoors after the service.  Pollinator Sunday is an important educational opportunity.  

Bulletin Inserts & Projection Slides

Suggested Hymns

Gathering Hymn: For All Things Worth Praising – words by David Bjorlin, sung to The Ash Grove (ELW 547 or 881). See below for lyrics

Hymn of the Day: ELW 837 Many and Great O God are Your Works

Sending Hymn: ELW 739 Touch the Earth Lightly – ELW 739

Alternate Hymn Suggestions

From Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW):

• ELW 556 Morning Has Broken

• ELW 689 Praise and Thanksgiving

• ELW 731 Earth and All Stars 

• ELW 735 Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth

• ELW 737 He Comes to Us as One Unknown

• ELW 740 God of the Sparrow

• ELW 771 God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heaven

• ELW 824 This Is My Father’s World 

• ELW 856 How Great Thou Art

• ELW 876 Let the Whole Creation Cry

• ELW 879 For the Beauty of the Earth

• ELW 838 Beautiful Savior

• ELW 861 When Long Before Time

• ELW 881 Let All Things Now Living

From All Creation Sings (ACS)

• ACS 1063 God of the Fertile Fields

• ACS 1064 Earth Is Full of Wit and Wisdom

• ACS 1065 Can You Feel the Seasons Turning (EcoFaith Summit Hymn 2025)

• ACS 1071 In Sacred Manner 

Additional Stanza: Can You Feel the Seasons Turning (ACS 1065)

You may insert this stanza after stanza 2, composed by Paul Jacobson for the 2025 EcoFaith Summit, Earth’s Cries, Earth’s Call: Becoming Midwives of Hope for the Healing of Creation

Can you hear the whole Earth crying, crying out for all to hear?

Can you hear its creatures calling, wounded, stuff’ring, filled with fear?

Called by God to serve as midwives, called when evil threatens death,

By God’s grace our hands we offer to deliver life and breath. 

Recorded Hymns from the National Lutheran Choir

The National Lutheran Choir has given permission for these recordings to be used in worship, if you do so, please print in your bulletin or announcements "Used with permission of the National Lutheran Choir.”  Hymn licensing would be through your own OneLicense permissions.

“In Sacred Manner”, sung by the National Lutheran Choir, a moving hymn with beautiful images of God’s creation.  This video offers a way to integrate images of the beauty of the earth by playing the video during your worship service.

“Touch the Earth Lightly”, sung by the National Lutheran Choir on YouTube with an intro by David Cherwien, former director of the National Lutheran Choir.

Lyrics for Gathering Hymn:  “For All Things Worth Praising”

words by David Bjorlin, sung to The Ash Grove (ELW 547, 881)

Verse 1:

For all things worth praising – the vast and amazing –

the marvelous moments of awe and delight; 

The thunderstruck feeling of baffling healing, 

the sudden reversal of wrong into right;

The span of creation that sparks inspiration; 

the bounty of beauty that nature displays;

For wonders you gave us to stun us and save us, 

to you, their Creator, we lift up our praise.

Verse 2: 

For all things worth praising – the vast and amazing – 

but also the common, forgotten, and small; 

The atoms that form us, the sunbeams that warm us 

– invisible forces sustaining us all; 

The intricate features of littlest creatures; 

the numberless mercies eluding our gaze;

For all things enchanted that we take for granted, 

to you, their Creator, we lift up our praise.

Pollinator Liturgy Elements

Invocation

We gather in worship in the name of God the Creator of fluttering butterflies, buzzing bees, and soaring bats, in the name of Jesus Christ who redeems the broken ecosystems and polluted habitats, and the name of Holy Spirit whose heals and restores creation for the sake of all God’s living creatures

Amen.

Pollinator Litany

(suggested use: in place of a confession/forgiveness litany, in place of the kyrie/hymn of praise, or after hymn of the day)

Creating God, you abundantly provide sunlight and seasons, waters and soils, plants and animals, some that creep and buzz and flutter:

Great is your love.

Cosmic Christ, you elevate lilies of the field and birds of the air as exemplars of faith in anxious times; your earth-shaking death and resurrection embrace and redeem all creation:

Great is your love.

Renewing Spirit, your brooding awakens us and all creatures with life; you summon and gift a prophetic people to do justice and walk humbly, to build relationships of across divisions and generations, and to the ends of the earth:

Great is your love.

For pollinators that reflect your beauty and dance in the laughter of flowers:

Thanks be to God.

For a rainbow of butterflies, monarchs and swallowtails, fritillaries and admirals:

Thanks be to God.

For yellow and rusty-patched, brown belted and bumbling bees, whose busywork is essential for fruitful harvests, whose sweet honey has ever signified a plentiful land:

Thanks be to God.

For hummingbirds, moths, bats, and other pollen carriers that support the fertility of your intricate and interdependent ecological web:

Thanks be to God.

Hear our lament for species in decline, for areas of silent spring, for destructive human practices that endanger so much upon which we depend:

Teach us your way of new life.

Help us to see these small, often overlooked and disregarded creatures as key to the earth’s regeneration and ours:

Teach us your way of new life.

Move us to learn from their witness to your cross, your power hidden in weakness, and your promise that includes the littlest ones:

Teach us your way of new life.

In this Kairos moment, O God, empower us as your people to be pollinators of your love:

Grant us your wisdom.

In the groaning of creation, O Christ, enliven us to be partners for hospitable habitats,

Grant us your courage.

In the fullness of your renewal, O Spirit, embolden us to be plotters of resurrection hope.

Grant us your peace. Amen.

Prayer of the Day

God of liberation and healing, just as you cast demons to liberate and restore the one afflicted, do the same for us today.  Cast out the demons from our world that destroy your creation and empower us as your disciples to be the ones who liberate and restore your creation back to health and wholeness.  For the sake of the wellbeing of each of us who inhabit your creation and our planet that we call home.  In the name of your redeeming Son, we pray.  Amen.

Prayer Petition 

As an addition to the Prayers of the Intercession/People/Church 

Creator of all things big and small, we give you thanks for all that you created and declared that “it was good.”  We praise you for the pollinators, the butterflies, bees, bats, hummingbirds, and other creatures alike, that deliver pollen from plant to plant, enabling flowers and fruits to grow.  Protect their habitats from destruction, guide us in our stewardship of your land to restore natural habitats for thriving pollinators.  

Lord in your mercy,  

Hear our prayer.

Children's sermon based on Pollinator Plot Mandala

The Pollinator Mandala as used for a Children’s Sermon

Pollinator Sunday, June 22, 2025

The Pollinator Mandala was created by Rev. Sara S. V. Bishop of the ELCA Northwestern Synod. She uses doodling as a way to remember and while attending an annual EcoFaith Summit in Duluth a few years ago, she started sketching images and later completed a full color mandala based on her experiences. She shares it with us freely.

If your congregation has a pollinator plot, you should have a poster and a yard sign with the mandala which you can use as your visible teaching aid. If not, use this link to the mandala and print off a color copy to show the children. Congregations that have the ability to project images on a screen may want to use the same link so that the rest of the congregation can follow along.

What follows is suggestions as to how you might proceed, but feel free to use your own creativity to tell the story. The point of the lesson is that God has created everything: flowers, bugs, people, the sun and stars. God said that it was GOOD. We depend on each other. As God’s people, we need to love and care for all of creation.

• Introduce yourself, if needed, and invite the children to join you for the children’s sermon.  

• Since the Rev. Sara Bishop created this mandala while she was doodling IN CHURCH, you might also ask the children if any of them like to doodle or color in church.  Sometimes we listen better when we doodle!  Sara doodled while she listened, and what she heard turned into this beautiful mandala. 

• Show them the poster of the mandala. “A mandala is a circle with many figures in it and it’s designed to help us think about something. This is a pollinator mandala.”

• What do you think is in the middle? (A flower – maybe a dandelion)

• Can anyone see the ladybugs nearby? Do you see the bees with their yellow and black striped bodies? They are eating pollen and nectar from the purple flowers and the yellow flowers.

• Are there any other flowers on the mandala? (Yes, the dark red/violet flowers)

• What are those orange and black winged insects? (Butterflies, monarch butterflies in fact. They have a long straw-like tube to sip nectar from the flowers.)

• Other animals like nectar too. Can you find them? (Hummingbirds. Note the colors: red, green and white, and the long beak.) 

• And there’s another animal on our mandala: a bat! In some parts of the world (not Minnesota), bats drink nectar from flowers. Our bats eat lots of insects, like mosquitoes!

• (Point to each in turn). The ladybugs, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and bats get food from plants. But the animals are very important to the plants too because they carry pollen (dust-like particles) from one plant to another. This is called “pollination” and when it happens, fruits and seeds can develop. The plants and the animals depend on one another. And we depend on them. Lots and lots of our food comes from plants that are pollinated.

• Changes are happening in our world and sometimes these animals can’t find the plants they need. And the plants don’t have the pollinators they need. We can do our part by planting many kinds of plants, including native plants, even milkweed, which the monarch butterflies must have to survive. (If your congregation has a pollinator plot, tell the children where it is located and perhaps a bit about it.)

• God made the world this way: we depend on each other. Everyone and everything is very important and good. God loves all of creation and we can do our part to protect God’s good work.

Close in Prayer: Dear God, Thank you for the pollinators like the birds, bugs, butterflies and bees. Thank you for plants that depend on pollinators and for the food they provide to the pollinators, and to us. Help us to take good care of all of creation. In Jesus name, Amen.

Sermon Resources

Pastor Mark Ditmanson offers a reflection on Pollinators and the RCL texts for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost in the Green Blades Preaching Roundtable.

Find more scripture reflections at Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

“Why pollinators? Why the church?” an article written by Bruce Garbisch, a member of the Pollinator Plot Steering Committee and of Trinity Lutheran Church, Cook MN.

Benediction

Go from this place of worship, empowered as co-creators with God, into a hurting creation, to bring life where creation has been destroyed, and healing where habitats have been harmed. Go in awe and wonder at the beauty of the earth.

Amen

Sending

Go in peace.  Pollinate the world with the Good News.

Thanks be to God

Blessing of Pollinator Plots 2025

Some instructions:

• This blessing, or a blessing of your own choosing, should take place outdoors next to the plot of ground that has been dedicated for pollinator friendly habitat. 

• Before the blessing, one or more people in the congregation could share how this plot has come about and what is being planned. 

• If the congregation has the Pollinator Sanctuary yard sign, this could be “planted” or even re-planted at the same time.

• You could also have native seeds or plants at hand to do some planting, along with water and gardening tools.

The Lord of all Creation be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

We praise you, ever-Creating God, for your power made known in what seems powerless, your strength in what we call weak, your infinite regard for what we overlook and disregard.  We see your awesome power at work in the life giving relationship between pollinator creatures and the plants they pollinate. They are our teachers.  

Bless this pollinator plot  with your life-giving love. Bless those in our congregation who will tend it, and those who will linger here to enjoy it.  Open our eyes to the small wonders of your creation and the calling you have given us to lovingly care for the earth.  

Give us patience as we transform these grounds into native habitat that provides sanctuary for pollinators.  Help us persevere when we encounter disappointment or failure.  Give us humility to turn to people who know more than we do.   

May we learn from this plot to see beauty in a different way, not as perfect lawns, but as the wild diversity of native habitat. May we learn to find our place in your Creation, not to dominate and exploit, but to care and be cared for.  

We thank you for the fifty congregations in our synod who are also committing to be pollinator sanctuaries.  Strengthen and encourage them too as part of the pollinator plot. 

Bless all of your people in our congregations and communities as we create a plot for pollinators in a growing network of welcome and safety that enables these creatures to flourish and do their sacred work. May they continue to teach us a different way of being human, a gospel way, for the sake of all life.   

If your congregation is “planting” the Pollinator Sanctuary yard sign this day, you could say:

May this Pollinator Mandala yard sign be a sign to all in our congregation and community of the wondrous beauty of plants and pollinators in mutual care.

If your congregation is doing some planting, or ground preparation, you could say,

May these [name these plants] find their home in this earth, taking root and growing.

May this patch of God’s earth, free of harmful chemicals, be a home for God’s plant and animal creatures. We ask this in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all things.  

And let all the people say AMEN!

Alternate Option: Blessing of the Pollinator Plot 2024

Some instructions:

• This blessing, or a blessing of your own choosing, should take place outdoors next to the plot of ground that has been dedicated for pollinator friendly habitat. 

• Before the blessing, one or more people in the congregation could share how this plot has come about and what is being planned. 

• If the congregation has the Pollinator Sanctuary yard sign, this could be “planted” or even re-planted at the same time.

• You could also have native seeds or plants at hand to do some planting, along with water and gardening tools.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

We, the people of [name of church] gather here today to dedicate this ground [or to rededicate this ground] as a pollinator plot. As we do so, we join with congregations throughout our Northeastern Minnesota Synod who are also joining the plot in becoming pollinator sanctuaries.

We give glory to you for the intricate web of creation, and give thanks for the life-giving role of all pollinator species. 

Make us loving stewards of this piece of earth. Give us patience and perseverance. Help us learn through the mistakes we may make, and rejoice over every sign of new life. We pray that this plot of ground flourish as healthy habitat for pollinators, so that they may be protected for the vital work they do in making plants bloom and bear fruit.  

May this native garden become a sanctuary for people as well as plants and pollinators.  May these tiny creatures become models for us, so that we can be pollinators of Christ’s gospel for the whole creation. 

Use us for the tending and mending of the torn web of your beloved creation.

And let all the people say, AMEN!

After this or another prayer of your choosing, there can be a symbolic planting or scattering of seed or planting of the Pollinator Sanctuary sign.