HAPPY THANKSGIVING ….. Truly American Story? ….Much More Global than you might think

Today I will give the Call to Worship and read the Proclamation of the Governor at our Communal Thanksgiving Day Service

What is far more interesting to me is how we like everything within our American Culture view its development from a truly reductionist lens

Sadly we no longer teach history in many places

…our media is far more interested in entertainment or propaganda than informing/ educating the American Public

The reaction I always get when Deep Diving these historical events is one of wonder by those that hear the compendium of facts

Because most people don’t read anymore and those that read for leisure is a small segment of society

.....intellectually we have all become highly specialized in our professional expertise

..while our general knowledge is limited is not totally vapid

One of the great benefits of a Classic Education was the hundreds of books that you read

…..especially those Classic Books

For the more advanced ( back in the day) you learned several languages and read them in their primary form

The linkage of all these various different pieces somehow came together to form a universal critical mind

Something that today is financially beyond the reach of most people

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This ability to first know all the dots,

.....then prioritize them

.....and then connect them is quickly becoming a lost artform in American Society

Our Thanksgiving Story begins with

?…the Te Deum Laudamas

….. the ancient Christian Prayer of Thanksgiving that finds it origins in the early Fourth Century

…with St Ambrose of Milan that came to be called the Ambrosian Rite

It ascribed a public moment of Thanksgiving and Praise for the Blessing that God Bestowed upon his people

This Communal Worship Moment was traditionally inserted at the end of the Matins Service before the Divine Liturgy began

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Its more ancient origins find their roots in the word of Psalm 92

It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord

Then later we find this incorporated into

?…the words of the Apostle Creed which is collectively recited at every liturgy

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In the Eighth Century at the time of Charlemagne within the Frankish Rite this acquired a National Character that linked Church and State on these occasions

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We observe the similar development within the Byzantine Empire in which this Te Deum would take on the form of The Great Doxology sung on the Specific Days of Imperial Significance

Which through the ministry of Saint Cyril and Methodius would find its introduction into Kievan-Rus and Prince Vladimir in the tenth century

All across the diversity of Christianity in Europe we find the institutionalization of this Te Deum Mindset

It is readily seen in Venice, France, Holy Roman Empire

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These universal practices transvers all political and cultural differences?

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It is not surprising that these liturgical practices find themselves as part of the newly formed Church of England under Henry VIII

…but more importantly in the development of the Common Book of Prayer and the accompanying Canticle Hymnal

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With the proliferation of the Protestant Reformation these practices are readily seen in the forming Lutheran, Anglican and later Methodist Churches

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In 1536 – the Church of England developed its liturgical calendar in which it ascribed within its Puritan Ethos

….. a Day of Fasting and Thanksgiving which was viewed as recompense for the Blessing of God’s Providence

In 1588- Upon the Victory of Elizabeth I, over the Spanish Armada and then again in 1605 in the deliverance of Queen Anne this Day of Thanksgiving becomes an annual event

No surprisingly in 1619 in the Colony of Virginia such a Day of Thanksgiving was observed as it was well known by these English Settlers

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Yet the most excepted version is in 1621 upon the gathering of a most successful harvest these Pilgrims who were a derivative group of Puritans along with their Native American Wampanoag allies sat down to a Thanksgiving Feast

This became an annual event and with settling by the Puritans in the establishment of Boston in 1630

This Day of Thanksgiving became an Official Puritan Holiday

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…..Of course these practices spread throughout New England and by the time of the American Revolution were a cultural staple

So much…that President George Washington on November 26, 1789 proclaimed a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer

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Newport NH’s….own Sarah Josepha Hale would champion this cause in the nineteenth century until President Lincoln in 1863 declared Thanksgiving as a National Holiday

In 1941 President FDR and Congress Designated Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the Fourth Thursday of November 24, 2024

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So what we think as this most American of all Holidays possesses a truly international beginning whose history dates back more than fifteen hundred years it is truly something that is not uniquely ours but we share with people around the planet

This Blessed Day speaks to our Hearts

The Spirit of Gratitude and Humility that we all must collectively bring to creating a Unity of Oneness in the Sight of God’s Blessing

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As I Call the Assembly to Worship Today

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Let us Pray …

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?It is a good thing to give thanks unto the?Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High:

?To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

?Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

For thou,?Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

?O?Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

?A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

Those that be planted in the house of the?Lord?shall flourish in the courts of our God.

They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

?But thou,?Lord, art the most high forever and ever more.

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In many Protestant Churches I love how they call this Thanksgiving Sunday

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So as your family gathers on this Thursday

..I want all of you to reflect on the ties that bind us together

?More that the Food or the Football

Please remember …its each other that we are celebrating

..and the Blessing from Above that make it all possible

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Happy Thanksgiving Sunday

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