Remembrance Day for Lost Species
The Remembrance Day for Lost Species, 30 November, falls on a Sunday this year. We thought it might be useful to collect together some resources to help you use this day in your churches to mourn those species that are no more, that we may repent and recommit ourselves to preserve those that remain.
We do appreciate that 30 November is Advent Sunday. Do use these resources on the Saturday, the eve of the day, or any other date that works for you and your community.
The Remembrance Day for Lost Species is a secular initiative, but lament and ritual is something that, as Christians, we should be able to offer to our communities. So, if you do plan something, please consider making the language accessible to non-church-goers and inviting people from outside your church.
Telling the truth and hearing the truth about extinction raises serious and deep concerns within us, and can provoke feelings of despair. We’d recommend providing a space for the community to come together to share ideas and support each other, either directly after the service or at some point during the following week. Climate Cafe might be helpful in this. And our Borrowed Time Programme has courses and resources to help you.
Requiem for Species Extinction
Please download and use all or some of this suggested order of service put together by Revd Helen Burnett and Steve Canning
Prayer that could be used in your time for intercessions
Do alter this prayer for your use:
Today (next Sunday/next month..) is (the eve of) Remembrance Day for Lost Species
Creator God, we come from, and we dwell in, your beautiful, magnificent world. We share it with the myriad of creatures and plants that praise you by being what you created them to be. By our lack of care, our lack of love, we are wiping out pieces of your handiwork, silencing their praise.
We are sorry.
Forgive us.
Give us now what we need to safeguard the beauty and diversity of your world. Let us not be thwarted by the immensity of the challenge, for your power working within us can do more than we can imagine. May the love, unearthed by the sadness we feel for that which is lost, burn in our hearts, and ignite in us the courage to stand up against all that threatens what remains.
Through Jesus Christ, in whom and for whom all things were created. Amen.
(Altered from a prayer found here)
Poem
Rituals
In the Requiem for Species Extinction, above, Helen used candles and the creation of a simple cairn. But do also consider these other examples of rituals you might want to use.
Liturgy
Assembled and written by Green Christian Trustee, Andii Bowsher
Where to go for information
The latest Red List produced by the IUCN (the most authoritative global assessment of the extinction risk of species) was released 10 October 2025 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi. It is sobering reading – the updated database includes 172,600 species of which 48,600 are threatened with extinction.
Their Press Release has a paragraph on extinct species at the end.
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