Blessings to you on this day of gratitude and celebration of abundance and harvest. On this day of complex history and truth-telling and grief. On this day, much like all others, full of the complexity of being a human in the world.
As the Rev. Connie Simon reminds us in her poem quoted in our image, “gratitude doesn’t ask us to ignore exhaustion, uncertainty, or the state of the world. It simply invites us to notice what endures. We honor both our weariness and our hope — we name the struggles we carry while gently returning to the small, steady gifts that remain. Gratitude lives alongside all of it, reminding us that even in difficult times, something steady and sustaining is still present”.
I am so grateful for my time away the last few weeks to recharge. And I am thrilled to be back in community as we look toward this busy season together.
Our A2U2 Thanksgiving Potluck is TODAY, Thursday, at 1:30. If you don’t have other plans, please come!
On Sunday, we mark the final week of our month-long food drive – please bring individually wrapped toilet paper and small bottles of cooking oil. After church you’re invited to join me at an all-ages meal-packing event at First Congregational Church in South Portland organized by the Greater Portland Multifaith Organizing Group (we’ll pack over 10,000 meals for local food banks!). Noon-3pm… details in your ENews.
Our Sunday worship service also marks the first Sunday in the liturgical season of Advent… the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve, a season of anticipation, waiting, darkness, and deepening. This week we’ll set the stage for the journey through December by remembering the context of the Christmas story… life under the rule of King Herod. And think about how in our own time of Herod, we long for love, hope, and meaning. Where might we find it? How might we build it?
And have you marked your calendar for the Holiday Artisans Fair from 9-1 on Saturday, Dec. 6th? I hope so because it’s a really fun morning and our church’s biggest fundraiser of the year! There are beautifully made-by-hand gifts and fantastic food.
I look forward to our journey through this season of holy darkness with you, friends. Until I see you, may your days be blessed.
In faith,
Rev. Tara