Compiled by The Bedford Citizen
Bedford celebrated its annual interfaith Thanksgiving service on Sunday, November 24, in Bedford’s historic meeting house on the Common.
A contingent of Bedford Minutemen posted the colors to open the service, and First Parish’s senior minister John Gibbons offered this welcome:
Good afternoon and welcome, everyone… It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone on behalf of the Bedford Clergy Association.
Our clergy group, you should know, has grown. There used to be a time when two or sometimes one of us would meet monthly for lunch. Now we can have a dozen clergy present, and recently we have welcomed new pastors at First Baptist and First Church, and there is participation from beyond Bedford – Jared Koyle from the LDS chapel in Billerica whose members include people from Bedford, and Rabbi Jill Perlman, a Bedford resident who serves Lexington’s Temple Isaiah, as well as chaplains from the VA, Hanscom, and Carleton-Willard. Not all could be with us today and we still have not connected with all of Bedford’s faith communities but suffice to say Bedford is larger and more diverse than many would imagine.
Relationships among clergy and our faith communities are deeply respectful and it is good to be together, today and throughout the year. Earlier this fall First Parish welcomed foreign visitors from eastern Europe and, among other things, I took them to an interfaith meeting and they were nearly amazed for, of course, in other parts of the world, amid differing faiths, there can be deep distrust, fear, prejudice and even violence.
It is especially important that we are together today for, in recent days there have been multiple incidents of crude swastikas drawn on Bedford school property. Someone or ones, as yet unknown, are of course responsible. But we all are responsible for Bedford being a community of caring, safety and inclusion. Hate is unacceptable, and we are fortunate to live in a community where representatives of our schools, police, government, and faith communities work pro-actively together to learn from such incidents, and to renew our pledge of respect for all people.
Thanksgiving and all the winter holidays are special reminders that we’re in this together and that we’re responsible for and to one another. Holidays bring us together and summon our commonality and generosity of spirit.
So, no matter what, we keep on keeping on and we do so with thanksgiving.
In his novel Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry writes, “The living can’t quit living because the world has turned terrible…. They can’t because they don’t. The light that shines into darkness and never goes out calls them on into life. It calls them back again into the great room. It calls them into their bodies and into the world, into whatever the world will require. It calls them into work and pleasure, goodness and beauty, and the company of other loved ones.”
Thank you to all who have helped bring us together…Minutemen and musicians and choristers and those who organized and typed and baked and turned on the lights and showed up. For our bodies and this world, for work and pleasure, goodness and beauty, and the company of loved ones we give thanks.
And again may we be reminded that we are all members, one of another. May we be bearers of the light that shines into darkness and turn our darkness into light.
Welcome and we’ll sing: Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.
Bedford’s State Representative Ken Gordon arranged a proclamation from Governor Deval Patrick which was read by Selectman Chair William Moonan. Reverend John Castricum of First Church of Christ read a selection from William Bradford’s Of Plimouth Plantation; Rev. Dr. Lorrie Dunham shared Thoughts on Giving Thanks; Rabbi Jill Perlman of Temple Isaiah and Jared Koyle of the Church of Latter Day Saints offered readings; and Rev. Megan Lynes of First Parish gave the closing blessing.
There was wide participation by Bedford’s clergy, their congregations and choirs, along with community representatives:
- Clergy and/or lay participants from the following congregations: First Baptist Church of Bedford; First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist; First Church of Christ, Congregational, United Church of Christ; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; Temple Shalom Emeth, Burlington; Temple Isaiah, Lexington; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Billerica; Parish of St. Michael; Church of the Savior, Lutheran.
- Music directors and choirs from several congregations: Bradford Conner, First Parish; Joan Reddy, St. Paul’s; Susan Capestro, First Church of Christ, Congregational; Ben Silver, Temple Shalom Emeth; Alisa Stoddard, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Joan Mickel, First Baptist Church; Joe DiMarino, Parish of St. Michael; Vianna Pilkington, Lutheran Church of the Savior.
- Musicians: Jennifer Lester, organ; Carol Epple, flute; Joan Reddy, piano; and Bradford Conner, piano.
- Community Representatives: The Bedford Minuteman Company; Hanscom Air Force Base; The Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.
A freewill offering taken up during the service resulted in a donation of more than $700 to benefit Bedford’s Food Pantry and Open Table.
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