Dear Friends,

With the world still in the throes of a pandemic after a year and a half we might be tempted to think there’s nothing to be thankful about – and we’d be wrong.  Sure, we’ve been greatly inconvenienced, intimidated and insulated by this virus but in truth it’s only scratched the surface of our lives. God has made us deep and resilient and for that we can be thankful. He also created us in his own image, provided us with everything we have, surrounded us with family and friends (sometimes remotely), placed us on a planet filled with beauty and wonder and offered us purposeful service and work. These thankworthy gifts have been supplied to the whole human race.

Above and beyond the aforesaid, we who have encountered Jesus Christ have been completely forgiven through Christ’s death, assured of eternal life through his resurrection, supplied with his joy, peace, truth and love by the Holy Spirit and recruited into his mission to restore all creation. That’s a lot. Remember that, in the way it’s presented in scripture, thanksgiving is not a feeling. It’s a spiritual discipline and an act of the will in which we deliberately and gladly give God credit for his many blessings (1 Thess. 5:18).

The New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek word for ‘to thank’ is ‘eucharisteo’, from which we derive our word ‘Eucharist’. In its various forms it occurs over 50 times in the New Testament. We’ll be celebrating the Eucharist, aka the Lord’s Supper, on Thanksgiving Sunday, October 10^th, at all three churches. We hope that you can join us and that our online viewers will also participate.

In Christ’s love,

Harry