News Archive

November 2015

Pastor Points: Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

Thanksgiving is a peaceful holiday, though not an easy one for the cooks in your family! I am personally thankful for no major shopping season in preparation for Thanksgiving—except for trips to the grocery store. There are no office parties or obligatory gift exchanges. More than any holiday (other than Christmas), Thanksgiving is a family time.

God has graced us with gifts we’ve done nothing to earn. Most of us learned the meaning of Thanksgiving Day as children in primary school, when we created Pilgrims in construction paper hats or bonnets and friendly Native Americans, in cardboard feathers we’d colored with crayons. (Not to mention paper plate turkeys!)

Christians have an advantage at Thanksgiving because we know who to thank. Our faith provides a perspective that enables us to see that grace and bounty are not something owed to us, but gifts from a loving God. Christians understand that even in hard times, we are abundantly graced with life itself -- a wonderful gift -- and with the abiding presence of God.

As you offer thanks to God on Thursday, November 26, may the peace of gratitude flood your soul.

Our Thanksgiving service will be held on Sunday, November 22 at 10:00 a.m. It will include your favorite Thanksgiving hymns. There will be a congregational meeting at the end of that service, to elect church officers, to receive the 2016 church budget, and, most importantly, to give thanks for the lives of the members who have passed away this year.

Thankfully,
Pastor Joyce

Previous Pastor Point - October 2015
News Archive