Thanksgiving

While not a New Zealand festival day we have been introduced to it by several Americans in our congregation. If we do anything in our service around this date it focuses on remembering what we have to be thankful for currently and any particular circumstances of gratitude that arose during the year. We have used a booklet that people write in and which is later read out as part of our prayers. This might happen during the movement to communion or as part of the prayers for others slot. More recently we’ve combined Thanksgiving with our All Saints/All Souls celebrations. If we have a Thanksgiving meal on the Saturday evening we carry the ‘thanks’ book forward to the Sunday service. We use the same book from year to year.