A Cool Thanksgiving Experience

On Thanksgiving Eve, I had a really cool experience of being part of the Twenty-Eighth ANnual Tahnksgiving Ecumenical and Interfaith Service. A few weeks before, Tom, the conductor from the Meridiian Symphony, announced that if anyone want to sing, they could join. I had no idea what was involved but I emailed him and ended up as part of the choir. I drove in on some pretty icy roads into Boise on Wednesday night, tea and cough drops in hand as I was still getting over a cold and coughing a lot, and picked up my music.

I had never been in St. John's Cathedral before and it was beautiful to behold. It reminded me of a less ornate and a newer version of St. Paul's in London. I didn't feel right taking overt pictures so all of these were either from my phone or covertly shot from the pew where I was sitting.
We had a short rehearsal to go over the music and then we got started. The point of this Thanksgiving service was to bring together all of the religions and denominations of the Treasure Valley and spend an evening together remind each other that even though we may believe in different ideas, we all share the idea of community and thanksgiving. The service started out with the familiar sound of a shofar being blown in his usual rhythm and then a processional of all the ministers and religious representatives while the choir sang Oh God Beyond All Praising.



Two minsters from the Catholic and Episcopal churches gave the welcome and prayer, the Mayor gave a Thanksgiving Proclamation (rather him than the governor) and then we sang "All Creatures of our God and King". We sang with the amazingly beautiful pipe organ and a brass section and when we came in, it reminded me of an old Disney movie where there were songs sung by choirs. It was just a glorious amount of sound and I wish I had recorded it so you could all hear what I was hearing.

The first reading was from a leader of the Islamic Community of Idaho and he read in Arabic and English from the Koran, all verses about gathering of the harvest and being grateful to God. We then listened to a group from Burundi, Africa, sing and worship the way that they do when they say mass in Burundi. I loved the different sounds and rhythms that they beat out and then we sang a piece called Come All You People that we sang in both English and another Burundi/African dialect. "Uyai mose, tinamate Mwari, Uyai mose Zvino- Come all you people, come and praise your maker, come let us worship the Lord."



The second reading was from an LDS leader about the importance of faith and prayer and then we sang "Deep River". I had sung that in college and because they needed three soprano soloists, I volunteer. Also because I didn't want to learn the other part. Next was the leader of the Buddhist Community who called us to meditation by reminded us to stop and listen and to be still. She struck a prayer bell that vibrated for a long time in between her words and it echoed widely throughout the quiet cathedral.
The speaker of the night was Rabbi Dan Fink from Ahavath Beth Israel, the synagogue in Boise. Now, I may be biased, but his talk was absolutely incredible. I will try and recap it as best as I can because it's really worthy of repeat. He started out by talking about what country is the less happiest. Turns out, according to a book whose name I can't remember, that country is Moldova. The fabric of that nation was destroyed through years of harsh rule and now the reaction of all the people there is distrust and despair- it's not my problem, they say to all the social ills of the country. Now compare this to the country of Liberia where, five years ago, it would have made Moldova look like the Bahamas. There was a strict dictatorship and its citizens didn't back down- a heroic band of women changed the course of the country's history. A group of women decided to "pray the devil back to hell", there was a mass action to peace that began with Christian women but later spread to Muslim women who joined hands across religious boundaries and began working towards peace and democracy.

Rabbi Fink explained that it is our reaction and response that determines our fate. We can choose to be like the Liberians or the Moldovans. The courage that we have to make that decision comes from the heart (they have the same root- couer), just like we have faith that come from the heart. When we help others, we make our community stronger. Rabbi Hillel states this quite well when he says "If I am only for myself, then who am I?" Fear sends us down the wrong path, fear keeps us from equality, it puts us at war with each other because of fear and insecurity.
This is where Rabbi Fink got a little controversial. He proclaimed that it is fear that keeps us at war with other nations, not just ourselves. It is fear that vilifies President Obama for wanting us to all have health care. It is fear that keeps our gay neighbors from serving in the military proudly or from getting married. So say things like that in the heart of conservative Boise certainly took some courage, so Rabbi Fink was definitely practicing what he was preaching. But he had a good point. We have become so pessimistic that we start to only look at helping ourselves. Golda Meir said that pessimism is a luxury a Jew cannot afford and it is now the same with Americans. We cannot afford to be pessimistic. Our optimism returns us to the path of courage. Our optimism turns us away from our problems and helps us focus on the problems of our neighbors. Out of many, we become one, as our nation's motto, e pluribum unum, says. We multiply our blessings when we share. We become stronger when we share- we become their keepers and they become ours. Rabbi Fink finished with a quote from Desmond Tutu: goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death."
The service ended with an offering where we sang "Come Ye Thankful People Come" and the blessing of the food and monetary gifts to be donated to the Idaho Food Bank done by a woman from Illowan's Children. We sang the Doxology, were lead in a prayer of Thanksgiving and concluded with a Song of Thanksgiving and closing prayer. A member of the synagogue blew the shofar one last time and the ministers and religious representatives marched the recessional while we sang the ever patriotic "America!"

It was certainly a new opportunity to sing and be a part of this and I am incredibly thankful that I did. In a world where people focus so much on the differences between people, it was nice to come together with many religions and denominations and realize that we really aren't so different- that even though we believe in different Gods and different doctrines and different codes of living, we all can find something to be thankful for.