Stoughton Clergy Association Issues a Message of Thanks on Thanksgiving

For the Stoughton Clergy Association, their annual Stoughton Community Thanksgiving Service is a time to share fellowship and remember the meaning of the holiday.

It's also a time to remember those who came before us and to give thanks for all we have.

"Gratitude for being itself was one of the first religious responses to human existence," said Rev. Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz of the First Parish Universalist Church, whose entire semon can be read on his blog.

"Our ancestors, ancient and not-so-ancient, lived close to the earth; their existence was marginal, at best. They were glad just to be alive. Because they knew, so intimately, the very fragility of their lives, our ancestors felt so close to their God, to the powers of life and death inherent in the universe."

He said Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for what we have and to realize we don't do it alone, something that gets lost in our current culture.

"There is here no appreciation for the bounty of nature; there is no sense here that there are forces greater than us at work in this universe, from which all our good fortune flows, and without which we human ones would be nothing," Symynkywicz said.

He quoted Emerson that "we are not born free. We are born with a mortgage. This mortgage is a debt--a debt we owe to the past and to the future."

Symynkywicz asked those in attendance to remember to give back in life.

"If we truly are to celebrate Thanksgiving, then we need to find ways that we can give something back to Earth which has nourished and sustained us, and find some way that we can repay, pennies on the dollar, perhaps, something of this great debt we owe to the One who created us." 

Taking part in the services were Rev. Jean Niven Lenk of First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, who is the president of the association; Rev. Rebecca Cho and Rev. Summin Cho of First United Methodist Church; Rev. Stanley Schultz of Faith Baptist Church; Rev. Joseph P. McDermott of Immaculate Conception Church, who is the treasurer of the association; Rev. Alden Flanders of Parish of Trinity Church (Episcopal); and Symynkywiz, who is the association's secretary.

Horace Mackness is the choir director, Robin Cedrone, organist and the members of the Community Choir sang.

Faith Baptist Church was the host for the event. Each year, it is rotated between the town's houses of worship.

Flanders read a Thanksgiving Presidental Proclamation.

A collection was taken to provide food assistance to the Stoughton community.