Aaron Lemma

By Aaron Lemma • Posted September 23, 2026

Were you concerned about extreme heat or torrential rains this summer?

Is your electric bill going up?

Are you worried about a data center, pipeline, refinery, or other industrial structure being built in your community?

Do you fear for the world in which your children will grow up?

These are all ecological concerns, and the Church is called to respond to them as we Care for God’s Creation, a core tenet of Catholic Social Teaching.

To honor this call, every year our Catholic community celebrates the Season of Creation from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, culminating with the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

This year we at EcoPhilly, the creation care ministry in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, humbly invite you to join us at a Synodal Listening Session to raise up “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” across our region.

Through these listening sessions, we hope to give you, members of our local Catholic community, a space to voice your concerns about the ecological impacts you experience and how we hope the Church can accompany us moving forward.

Listening sessions like these will happen across the country as part of the joint program of the Laudato Si’ Movement and the Catholic Climate Covenant. EcoPhilly and our local partners are happy to join this effort.

Responses from these local sessions will be submitted to the national program organizers, resulting in a synthesis document that will be presented to the USCCB next year.

The listening sessions will take place at the following:

  • Monday, Sept. 28 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Raphaela Center at 616 Coopertown Road in Haverford;
  • Thursday, Oct. 1 from 2to 3:30 p.m. at Chestnut Hill College, East Parlor, at 9601 Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia; Sunday, Oct. 4 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at St. Matthew School at 3040 Cottman Avenue in Philadelphia.

Whether you are a devout environmentalist or interested in learning more, we would be happy to welcome you to one of these sessions, all of which are open to the public.

The session at St. Matthew School especially welcomes middle school and high school students and their families.

Please click here to register and direct any questions to our team at info@ecophilly.org.

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Aaron Lemma is the Director of U.S. Operations for Water is Life Kenya and the Director of Mission Advancement for EcoPhilly.