Join us tomorrow morning (Nov. 23, 2017) at 9:00 a.m. for a Thanksgiving Day Eucharist (that’s a double thanksgiving). Our service will be with Word, music, and Sacrament. This is a wonderful way to start in worship, but still leaving plenty of time for other festivities of the day!

Here are a few reasons we might chose to do so:

Agricultural festivals are of great antiquity, and common to many religions. Among the Jews, the three pilgrimage feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, each had agricultural significance. Medieval Christianity also developed a number of such observances, none of which, however, were incorporated into the Prayer Book.

Our own Thanksgiving Day finds its roots in observances begun by colonists in Massachusetts and Virginia, a tradition later taken up and extended to the whole of the new American nation by action of the Continental Congress.

The Prayer (Collect)

Almighty and gracious Father, we give thee thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we beseech thee, faithful stewards of thy great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

From: Lesser Feasts and Fasts (Kindle Locations 7848-7852). Church Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.