Since the Pilgrims weren’t Anglicans, and I’m not sure the Bible had even been written in 1621, there can be no denying that Thanksgiving is a fundamentally pagan occasion. Consequently I’ve long considered mounting a campaign calling upon Christians to boycott the day, and probably would have done so if the Jehovah’s Witnesses hadn’t got there first. After all, who wants to let a sect that believes there’s something sinful about eating steak tartare think they’ve beaten me when it comes to taking the sanctimonious high ground?
And in any case, there’s no denying that there’s something really wonderful about gathering over a meal with family and friends in order to give thanks for my wisdom, ministry, and incomparable life of service to the Church. What’s more, thanks to the miracle of the internet I know that all of you, My Dearly Beloved Sinners, are also gathering wherever you may be around the world to give thanks for all that you have learned here during the past year, and I’d like each and every one of you to know that I’m also thinking of you – or at least will be until I’ve eaten and drunk too much and indigestion sets in.
So as well as weeping tears of gratitude for the many ways in which the Lord and I have blessed you, please also spare a moment to give thanks for those of lesser importance in your lives, such as your partners, children, parents, friends, dogs, cats, gerbils (yes Viagravillains – I’m thinking of you too), neighbours, village idiot, and people who use leaf-blowers when you're trying to sleep – not to mention that uncle twice removed who really doesn’t need to adjust himself that often. And everyone else in your lives, because they’re all a part of what makes your world go around. Besides, wouldn’t it get lonely and boring without them?
Happy Thanksgiving!
12 comments :
Back in the 1960-70s, I served parishes in Massachusetts. It always galled me that we loyal Episcopalians with our BCP Feast of Thanksgiving dutifully observed it, perhaps overlooking the fact that the Puritan establishment in New England was the cause for this 'feast'. Year after year, I drove by closed Congregational Churches who did not offer this 'feast' in worship, while we Anglicans were dutifully thanking God for those dissenters and separatists whose contemporary progeny were asleep in their beds as we prayed.
Of course the feast has been interpreted in so many ways that now its historical Pilgrim origins are just part of the decorations.
Happy Thanskgiving Father Xtian Troll. I am also thankful for grandchildren. Without them life would be a lot more dull!
Keep up the God's work as you tickle my fancy in ways only you could. I can hadly wait to roast my chestnuts this year!
I'm thankful that you are a fancy tickler to us all, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and all the other reasons we don't discriminate against our fellow persons! As a bear of little brain, I cannot remember all the reasons that are listed in our church bulletin. I am so thankful to be counted among your Dearly Beloved Sinners.
Happy Thanksgiving Fr. Troll.
May a humble English Parson bid you Best Wishes on this day - although I haven't a clue what it's all about. But a good Anglican needs no excuse to get drunk.
I am so thankful to be counted among your Dearly Beloved Sinners. Susan
Me too, I can´t wait to keep being loved by you! Speaking of which, I wonder how many sins I´ve committed since this morning? Probably dozens (at least in my mind) because the Barber Shop down the street is CLOSED (and I don´t live Stateside) and I´m going to a fancy din-din tonight! Damn! See, I did it again!
Happy Thanksgiving (it´s my favorite Holiday, it´s friendly, it´s welcoming, it´s loaded with good things to eat)
This cynic is glad you brighten my day with your irreverent sarcasm.
Wow, Pete, I've always thought his sarcasm was totally reverent!
Happy Thanksgiving, Fr Christian. About your uncle twice removed, I have one like that. Perhaps we are related.
Dear Fr. Christian Troll, if you're from the South you must be related to Mimi. Of course, I'm a Yankee so OCICBW, but I just assumed everybody in the South is related to everybody else. Mimi will, as usual, set me straight if I'm wrong.
I trust you had a blessed Thanksgiving.
Another Sinner
Bob: Well you do have to admit that Puritans make lovely decorations if you paint them a nice color and hang little bells from them.
Everyone: Perhaps Grandmère buys her relatives from the same store I do. In which case she must have found them as inflexible when it comes to returns as I have.
Mimi and Father Christian
Maybe you can return your relatievs to each other in one continuous relative carousel?
Very true, Paul, as Strom Thurmond's forays into the slave quarters vividly demonstrate. The important thing, however, is that nice folk DO NOT TALK ABOUT IT.
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