This week, many of us will gather with friends and family to celebrate thanksgiving. I pray that we are all safe, and that our celebrations are peaceable and good.
As a church, we celebrate that Rev. Laura Whitt has passed the oral examinations of the Board of Ordained Ministry and will be ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church during Annual Conference in June, 2019.
She has worked long and hard toward this day, and your support, encouragement and prayers have been great blessings for her. Thank you!
I am so happy and proud of her. Although I recused myself from the room during her interviews, I am assured that her responses were stellar and profound. I expected nothing less. Pastor Laura has been called by God and gifted with a deep sense of holiness that blesses us today and will bless others for all of her ministry. I thank God for her, and I rejoice with her in this special time.
Recently, I found a little Hallmark booklet belonging to my mom, “Thanksgiving Treasures,” that included the following proclamation from President Kennedy. He says so eloquently much of what is in my heart.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOHN F. KENNEDY, President of the United States of America, in accord with the joint resolution of Congress, approved December 26, 1941, which designates the fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day, do hereby proclaim Thursday, the twenty-second day of November of this year, as a day of national thanksgiving.
I urge that all observe this day with reverence and with humility.
Let us renew the spirit of the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving, lonely in an inscrutable wilderness, facing the dark unknown with a faith borne of their dedication to God and a fortitude drawn from their sense that all men were brothers.
Let us renew that spirit by offering our thanks for uncovenanted mercies, beyond our desert or merit, and by resolving to meet the responsibilities placed upon us.
Let us renew that spirit by sharing the abundance of this day with those less fortunate, in our own land and abroad. Let us renew that spirit by seeking always to establish larger communities of brotherhood.
Let us renew that spirit by preparing our souls for the incertitudes ahead – by being always ready to confront crisis with steadfastness and achievement with grace and modesty.
Let us renew that spirit by concerting our energy and our hope with men and women everywhere that the world may move more rapidly toward the time when Thanksgiving may be a day of universal celebration.
Let us renew that spirit by expressing our acceptance of the limitations of human striving and by affirming our duty to strive nonetheless, as Providence may direct us, toward a better world for all mankind.
May your Thanksgiving be blessed.
The church office will be closed on Thursday and Friday. Everything for the 11-25-18 Stay Afloat and bulletins needs to be turned in by 8:00 AM Tuesday, November 20, 2018.
Faithfully,
Pastor Scarlett