Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Episcopalians corner the market on Thanksgiving.

Sure, everyone across the United States celebrates Thanksgiving in some way, from cranberries and turkey dinners to lazy afternoons watching football and parades to studious planning of Black Friday shopping.

But the best I can tell --from Google searching and quizzing my resident priest, the Episcopal Church is the only denomination that considers Thanksgiving a feast – of the religious kind.

I love that we set aside this day as special within our common life of prayer.

I’m sure there is some deep theological reasoning that determined why Thanksgiving is a holy day in The Episcopal Church. It probably took some long, windy path through legislative debates at General Conventions and impassioned arguments that infuriated some, delighted others and didn’t matter to most. I hope someone can share the history of why we include Thanksgiving in the feasts of our church.

But regardless of how Thanksgiving came to be considered a holy day, I like the reminder that I should offer praise to God first, giving thanks for God’s presence in my life and for the many blessings God provides.

Then I can settle into the couch with the sale ads and another piece of chocolate pie.

It is Thanksgiving, after all.

Thanksgiving Day
Almighty and gracious Father, we give you 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.