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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Thank you, Rod, especially for your
witness at the bottom.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>John <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Rod Rippel<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, November 26, 2012
6:54 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Order
Ecumenical Community</st1:PersonName><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [Oe List ...]
Thanksgiving Reflection</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Someone posted the Mayflower Compact with
the comments by Thomas Berry a while back. I remember it and added a few
reflections. Rod Rippel<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>THANKSGIVING REFLECTION<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> Most of our holidays in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> A feast seems entirely
appropriate for a celebration of giving thanks. The traditional servings at
Thanksgiving include foods which are originally from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, 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.”
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>
designated Thursday, November 26, to be celebrated as a national holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>In the
mythology of the country, Thanksgiving is often connected to the feast
celebrated by the Pilgrims and Indians in the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Plymouth</st1:place></st1:City> 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 <st1:place
w:st="on">Old World</st1:place> beverage) to last the three days. Even then,
excess was a mark of thanksgiving feasts; a tradition we continue to observe. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> I’m intrigued by the various
connections between the <st1:place w:st="on">Old World</st1:place> 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?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> When I was a member of the
Order:Ecumenical in the late 60’s we would symbolize the roots of Thanksgiving
in particular and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
civic development in general by having someone read out loud The Mayflower
Compact at our Thanksgiving meal.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Here’s the Compact: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>IN THE name of God, Amen.</span></font><font
color=black face=Calibri><span style='font-family:Calibri;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>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.</span></font><font color=black face=Calibri><span style='font-family:
Calibri;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>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.</span></font><font color=black
face=Calibri><span style='font-family:Calibri;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(A Side Note: The Pilgrims, having spent
some time in liberal <st1:City w:st="on">Holland</st1:City>, before going to <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Great Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
do not appear to be too enamored of the Trinity!)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>(2<sup>nd</sup> 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).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><u><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>SOMETHING TO ‘CHEW ON’ WHEN WE CELEBRATE
THANKSGIVING </span></font></u><font color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> Thomas Berry in his book, <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>The Great Work</span></i>, juxtaposes the culture of
the American Indians and that of the Europeans settlers. The arrival of the
Europeans in <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place>, 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.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> The aboriginal
peoples of <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place> 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 <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>use</span></i> was the critical issue”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>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 <span style='letter-spacing:-.1pt'>even experience a high spiritual
exaltation in what [they] were doing.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black;letter-spacing:
-.1pt'>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.</span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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