[Oe List ...] Thanksgiving Reflection

[John Cock]

Thank you, Rod, especially for your witness at the bottom.

 

John 

 

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Rod Rippel
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 6:54 PM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: [Oe List ...] Thanksgiving Reflection

 

Someone posted the Mayflower Compact with the comments by Thomas Berry a
while back.  I remember it and added a few reflections.  Rod Rippel

 

THANKSGIVING REFLECTION

 

            Most of our holidays in the US come to us as imports from The
Old World, being taken from the Christian liturgical calendar.  The Church,
in turn, took them from older Pagan cultures and transformed them into Holy
Days celebrated throughout  Christendom.  Of our own holidays, only two are
uniquely American, those being Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

 

            A feast seems entirely appropriate for a celebration of giving
thanks.  The traditional servings at Thanksgiving include foods which are
originally from America, not found in the Old world.  These include corn,
potatoes and, of course, turkey (a bird once nominated to be our National
Symbol by Benjamin Franklin).  Thanksgiving became an official holiday in
1863, when, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise.to God."  Lincoln
designated Thursday, November 26, to be celebrated as a national holiday.

 

In the mythology of the country, Thanksgiving is often connected to the
feast celebrated by the Pilgrims and Indians in the Plymouth colony in 1621.
That feast lasted for three days and was attended by approximately 50
Pilgrims and 90 indigenous Americans.  I imagine the Native Americans
supplied the corn (and perhaps the turkeys) while the Colonists saw to it
that there was plenty of beer (an Old World beverage) to last the three
days.  Even then, excess was a mark of thanksgiving feasts; a tradition we
continue to observe. 

 

            I'm intrigued by the various connections between the Old World
and the New when it comes to our Thanksgiving Holiday celebration.  How
would such a tenuous connection be symbolized meaningfully in our current
feasting?  And what of the contributions of the Indigenous Americans to our
current practice of Thanksgiving?  What are they and how would we symbolize
those connections today?

 

Of course we are highly conscious of the Colonists' contributions for which
we give thanks, their Faith and civic traditions, their social customs,
history and learning.  But what vestiges, if any, of the cultures and
learning's of Native Peoples of America have survived or retained in our
current holiday?  Not much. 

 

            When I was a member of the Order:Ecumenical in the late 60's we
would symbolize the roots of Thanksgiving in particular and US civic
development in general by having someone read out loud The Mayflower Compact
at our Thanksgiving meal.

This would be followed by a corporate conversation led by one member on the
blessings (and failings) of the 'civil body politic' since those earlier
times.  These were always meaningful and sobering conversations.

 

Here's the Compact: 

IN THE name of God, Amen.

We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign
Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland
king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God,
and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a
voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by
these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of
another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic,
for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends
aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just
and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to
time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of
the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the 11
of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of
England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the
fifty-fourth. Anno Domine 1620.

 

(A Side Note:  The Pilgrims, having spent some time in liberal Holland,
before going to Great Britain, do not appear to be too enamored of the
Trinity!)

 

(2nd Side Note:  Such a reading at the Thanksgiving Table shifts the meaning
of Thanksgiving itself away from simply being a meal with Thanks, but
towards the corporate blessings bestowed by our 'civil body politic,' and
introduces the possible notes of repentance and forgiveness).

 

 

SOMETHING TO 'CHEW ON' WHEN WE CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING 

 

            Thomas Berry in his book, The Great Work, juxtaposes the culture
of the American Indians and that of the Europeans settlers. The arrival of
the Europeans in North America, he says, "could be considered as one of the
more fateful moments in history, not only of this continent but of the
entire planet.. Every living being on this continent might have shuddered
with foreboding when that first tiny sail appeared over the Atlantic
horizon."

 

               The aboriginal peoples of North America and the European
settlers held two sharply contending views of nature. "To indigenous
people.the natural world was the manifestation of a numinous presence that
gave meaning to all existence.. As seen by the Europeans the continent was
here to serve human purposes though trade and commerce, as well as through
the more immediate personal and household needs of the colonists. They had
nothing spiritual to learn from this continent. Their attitude toward the
land as primarily for use was the critical issue"

 

Culturally derived beliefs about the role of humans in the world caused
insuperable difficulty for the Europeans in establishing any intimate
rapport with the North American continent or its people.  According to
Thomas, "Such orientation of Western consciousness had its fourfold origin
in the Greek [humanistic] cultural tradition, the biblical-Christian
religious tradition, the English political-legal tradition, and the economic
tradition associated with the new vigor of the merchant class."   To the
Europeans "Their human-spiritual formation was complete before they came.
They came, [they thought,] with the finest religion of the world, the
highest intellectual, aesthetic, and moral development, the finest
jurisprudence. They needed this continent simply as a political refuge and
as a region to be exploited."  They were committed to a "divinely
commissioned task of commercially exploiting this continent [and] could even
experience a high spiritual exaltation in what [they] were doing."

 

 

Only now, after 3000 years of hearing the Judeo Christian imperative of "Be
fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth and have dominion over all its
creatures" are we turning our ears to the suffering of nature and our
planet.  We see how lonely it will be without our fellow-creatures who are
being lost as a result of our selfishness.  How our action and exploitation
is spoiling the only nest we have.  How our stewardship has proven
short-sighted.  Perhaps Thanksgiving can be transformed into a true
ecological holiday celebration; one that includes our responsibility not
only for 'the civil body politic' but for all life on the planet.

 

 

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