Thanksgiving Day
November 24 | 10:00am
Organ Prelude
Toccata in C
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Chorale Prelude
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
*Processional 367 Come, Ye Thankful People Come
Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, does provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come; raise the song of harvest home.
All the blessings of the field, all the stores the gardens yield,
All the fruits in full supply, ripened ‘neath the summer sky,
All the spring with bounteous hand scatters o’er the smiling land,
All that liberal autumn pours from her rich o’er flowing stores:
These to thee, our God, we owe, source whence all our blessings flow;
And for these our souls shall raise grateful vows and solemn praise.
Come, then, thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.
Words of Welcome
Rev. Clover Reuter Beal
Land Acknowledgment
Rev. Ian Cummins
Gathering Prayer
Rev. Mike Morran
Psalm 121
Cantor Elizabeth Sacks
Buddhist Chant and Translation
Rev. Kaitlyn Mascher-Mace
Muslim Prayer
Dr. Nursen Konuk
Song
Rabbi Joe Black
Cantor Elizabeth Sacks
Message for Children
Rabbi Joe Black
Litany of Thanks for a Bounty of People
Rev. Canaan Harris
Leader: For our children who grow like weeds and, though the wind too soon blows them away, may they fondly remember the garden of their childhood.
People: Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
Leader: For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as blossoms and feisty friends as tart as apples.
People: Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
Leader: For continuous friends, like scallions and cucumbers, who keep reminding us of their steadfastness in our lives; and for temperamental friends, as sour and tough as rhubarb.
People: Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
Leader: For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you throughout the winter.
People: Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
Leader: For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings.
People: Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
Leader: And finally, for those loved ones now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life hereafter; for all these we give thanks.
Message
Rev. Clover Reuter Beal
Call for Offering
Rev. Ian Cummins
Local Mission Partner: Metro Caring, Judith Ackerman
Congregants are invited to make a contribution online by clicking here. If you’d prefer to write a check (make out to “Metro Caring”), donations can be placed in the offering box near the exit.
Offertory
The Sky Above The Roof
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Phoebe Bawmann
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Deacon David Mumby
Sharing of the Breads
Amanda Osenga and Rev. Andy Dunning
Leader: The Bread we share this day is sacred. Grain, gift of the earth, gives life.
People: The friendship we share this day is sacred. All gatherings, when people meet and touch, celebrate life.
Leader: The laughter we share this day is sacred. Joy and sorrow that rise from love are springs of life.
People: The stillness we share this day is sacred. In this peace is a haven for the spirit which nurtures life.
Leader: For bread, for friends, for joy and sorrow, for the comfort of quietness—let us be ever grateful and caring.
People: Behold these breads from the earth’s many grains, from the hands of many peoples:
Leader: Loaves of barley grains, made holy by the toil and the soil of the earth in Egypt, Africa, and the Middle East. Cakes of rice made holy by the toil of the people and the soil and water of the earth throughout Asia; Breads of corn made holy by the toil of the people and the soil of this continent’s indigenous peoples; Wheat and white bread, made holy by the toil of the people and the soil of Europe’s continent; Matzot, the unleavened bread of freedom, made holy by the memory of the Jewish people; Tortillas, likewise unleavened, made holy by the struggles for injustice in this hemisphere.
People: With our daily breads: May there be enough for all earth’s peoples; May there be enough for all earth’s children. With our Thanksgiving breads: May we be made holy by sharing in the labors, toils and struggles of the many around the globe. May we be made holy by the sharing of our substance and substances with our sisters and brothers who circle the earth. May we be one!
*Closing Song 643 Now Thank We All Our God (vs.1)
Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices;
who, from our mothers’ arms, hath blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
*Closing Remarks and Benediction
Rev. Clover Reuter Beal
Organ Postlude
Marche Triomphale
Siegfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)
2022 INTERFAITH SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING PARTICIPANTS
MONTVIEW BOULEVARD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Rev. Clover Reuter Beal
Rev. Ian Cummins
Amanda Osenga
Barbara Hulac, Organ
Phoebe Bawmann, Soloist
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Rev. Canaan Harris
Rev. Niki Jorgenson
TRISTATE BUDDHIST TEMPLE
Rev. Kaitlyn Mascher-Mace
CHRIST THE KING ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Deacon David Mumby
TEMPLE EMANUEL
Cantor Elizabeth Sacks
Rabbi Joe Black
MULTICULTURAL MOSAIC FOUNDATION
Dr. Nursen Konuk
FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIETY
Rev. Mike Morran
UNIVERSITY PARK UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Rev. Andy Dunning
METRO CARING
Judith Ackerman, Senior Manager of Development
INTERFAITH SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING HISTORY
Denver’s Interfaith Service of Thanksgiving is one of the oldest continuous interfaith partnerships in the country. The first “Community Thanksgiving Service” was held in 1876 as a partnership between several member congregations and this same group continued to gather together each year for the past 146 years, with other representative congregations joining in along the way.
The first service in Denver was hosted by Central Christian Church and was held at the Unity Church at 17th and California streets. This location was the original building of First Unitarian Society, founded in 1871, before they changed their name in the 1920s. An unnamed Presbyterian minister officiated, other Christians and Unitarians, and notably members of Temple Emanuel, the first synagogue established in Colorado, were in attendance. This was the first Interfaith Service of Thanksgiving organized west of the Mississippi River and remains the longest established Interfaith Service of Thanksgiving west of the Mississippi to this day. The service welcomed participants from the Denver Buddhist Church (which became the Tri-State Buddhist Temple) beginning in 1916, and over the years has welcomed new partners of different faiths so that today we have participants from Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Unitarian expressions of faith.
With 500+ participants expected on a typical Thanksgiving Day, the service is hosted in rotation between our coalition’s six largest sanctuaries.
LOCAL MISSION PARTNER: METRO CARING
Metro Caring was founded in 1974 by five downtown Denver area churches in response to a growing hunger situation throughout the community. Today, as Colorado’s leading frontline anti-hunger organization, Metro Caring works with our community to meet people’s immediate need for nutritious food while building a movement to address the roots causes of hunger. Metro Caring offers innovative programming and resources in the areas of healthy food access, nutrition education and cooking classes, diabetes prevention and self-management, ID assistance and procurement, urban gardening and agriculture, and community organizing, activation and development.
MONTVIEW BOULEVARD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1980 Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80220
303.355.1651 | www.montview.org