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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Someone posted the Mayflower Compact with the comments by
Thomas Berry a while back. I remember it and added a few
reflections. Rod Rippel</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">THANKSGIVING REFLECTION</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
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</SPAN>Most of our holidays in the US come to us as imports from The Old World,
being taken from the Christian liturgical calendar.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Church, in turn, took them from
older Pagan cultures and transformed them into Holy Days celebrated throughout
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Christendom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Of our own holidays, only two are
uniquely American, those being Independence Day and Thanksgiving.</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
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</SPAN>A feast seems entirely appropriate for a celebration of giving
thanks.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The traditional servings at
Thanksgiving include foods which are originally from America, not found in the
Old world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These include corn,
potatoes and, of course, turkey (a bird once nominated to be our National Symbol
by Benjamin Franklin).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Lincoln designated
Thursday, November 26, to be celebrated as a national holiday.</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That feast lasted
for three days and was attended by approximately 50 Pilgrims and 90 indigenous
Americans.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even then, excess was a mark of
thanksgiving feasts; a tradition we continue to observe. </FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
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face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
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</SPAN>I’m intrigued by the various connections between the Old World and the
New when it comes to our Thanksgiving Holiday celebration.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How would such a tenuous connection be
symbolized meaningfully in our current feasting?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And what of the contributions of the
Indigenous Americans to our current practice of Thanksgiving?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What are they and how would we symbolize
those connections today?</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But what vestiges, if any, of the cultures and learning’s of Native
Peoples of America have survived or retained in our current holiday?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not much. </FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
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</SPAN>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.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These were always meaningful and
sobering conversations.</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Here’s the Compact: </FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face=Arial><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">IN THE name of God,
Amen.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face=Arial><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">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.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face=Arial><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">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.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman">(A
Side Note:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Pilgrims, having
spent some time in liberal Holland, before going to Great Britain, do not appear
to be too enamored of the Trinity!)</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">(2<SUP>nd</SUP> Side Note:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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).</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><U><FONT
face="Times New Roman">SOMETHING TO ‘CHEW ON’ WHEN WE CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING
</FONT></U></P>
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style="TEXT-DECORATION: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN></U> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
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</SPAN>Thomas Berry in his book, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The
Great Work</I>, 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.”</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
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face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
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</SPAN> 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
<I>use</I> was the critical issue”</FONT></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">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. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.” <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They were committed to a “divinely
commissioned task of commercially exploiting this continent [and] could <SPAN
style="LETTER-SPACING: -0.1pt">even experience a high spiritual exaltation in
what [they] were doing.”</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="LETTER-SPACING: -0.1pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LETTER-SPACING: -0.1pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LETTER-SPACING: -0.1pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We see how lonely it will be without our
fellow-creatures who are being lost as a result of our selfishness.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How our action and exploitation is
spoiling the only nest we have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How
our stewardship has proven short-sighted.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>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.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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