PORT TOWNSEND — Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday, but every modern faith believes in giving thanks for what they have received, according to clergy planning an interfaith Thanksgiving service.
“Gratitude is part of every spiritual tradition,” said rabbinic pastor candidate Stephanie Reith, who is one of the organizers.
“This is all about bringing all of our theologies into the same space and celebrating them all together as a community, without fear.”
“An Interfaith Thanksgiving: A Weaving of Community Gratitude” will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.
Organizers are asking attendees to show up early and are requesting a contribution of canned food that will be donated to the Port Townsend Food Bank.
Monetary contributions are also welcome and will be donated to the Jefferson County winter emergency shelter, which provides free, warm lodgings in the basement of the American Legion hall at 208 Monroe St. in Port Townsend during the coldest months of the year.
Checks should be made out to Community Outreach Association Shelter Team, or COAST, which operates the shelter in partnership with Olympic Community Action Programs.
Smorgasbord of beliefs
The program, which is expected to end at 8:15 p.m., will showcase a smorgasbord of religious beliefs with a similar theme: gratitude and appreciation for the benefits of food, family and spirit.
Those participating include the Peninsula United Church of Christ, Unity Church, the Medicine Wheel Rainbow Tribe, Grace Lutheran Church, a Meher Baba devotee, the local Jewish community, the local Baha’i community, Zen Buddhists, pagans and Quakers.
“I’m sure that people will walk away a little more of an open mind,” said Mason Stanculescu, a Chimacum High School sophomore who will address the gathering as part of the Pagans of the Olympic Fellowship Teen Group.
“They will feel a little bit closer to the person next to them.”
“This is for people who believe in some larger mystery in life but whose dogma or specific beliefs may put them within their own group and not really be able to reach out to others who have a strong faith of some sort,” Reith said.
“So we learn about each other’s traditions and each other’s faith paths through this kind of collaborative work.”
As Interfaith in Action, the same group had its first celebration in the spring in honor of Earth Day.
“For me, this is one of the most exciting things that have ever happened to me since I started in the ministry,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Bloch of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
“Earth Day and Thanksgiving are the two places where we can come together and share the wisdom of tradition, of joy and of prayer.”
Many traditions
While planning the service, the organizers have woven together many traditions.
There is the symbolic distribution of the five kernels of corn, each representing a direction and element.
For a literal interpretation, each participant will be given five kernels to go forth and plant.
This is followed by the pagan ritual of passing the yarn, with a skein handed from one person to the next until it connects all the people in the room.
Participants then snip off their own pieces and take this connection home.
Reith said she hopes participants will walk away from the service enthused, but not in the way that is normally perceived.
“I see it in the Greek sense, that they will be ‘en-thused’ SEmD that is, filled up with spirit,” she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
