Dear Congregation,
I hope and pray all is well with you! It was surely a blessing to be together with you in-person in our Garden Chapel and virtually on Facebook and Zoom during worship and in our Congregational Meeting last Sunday! What a great spirit of warm fellowship and Christian love was present as we worshipped and made decisions affecting CCC’s future! We truly have much for which to be thankful as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday next week, despite continuing to live in a time of pandemic.
Realizing that many people will have increased hardship this year, struggling to put food on the table for their families because of the effects of Covid-19 restrictions, I was glad to hear of an opportunity for us to help others.
A sister church, The Church of the Open Door, which is located in Liberty City, is inviting area UCC churches to contribute to a food giveaway they are having on December 9th. Their Interim Pastor, Rev. Adrian McLean, shared yesterday at our monthly UCC Clergy Zoom meeting, that the church ran short of the need at their last giveaway and had to close their gates to people waiting in line.
When I advised Karen Kett, Mission and Outreach Chairperson, of this opportunity she enthusiastically agreed with me that that CCC should be involved. And so…you are invited to bring non-perishable food to worship on Sundays 11/29 and 12/6 and place it in our donations barrel by the Garden Chapel. Karen has also offered to stop and pick food up from your home. If you call her (305-238-4309 or 305-609-1919) you can just leave it outside your door. You may also drop it off at the church office from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 Monday through Friday. The cut-off date for receiving food donations is December 8th.
Giving to others enriches our spirit. We bless and are in turn, are blessed. As our street sign by our church driveway encourages us:
BE A BLESSING.
I share with you this Thanksgiving prayer, praying that you will indeed have a Happy Thanksgiving! You are a blessing to me!
In Christ’s love.
Pastor Candy
A PRAYER FOR THANKSGIVING DAY
On this day, O God, we give thanks in all kinds of situations, or even in solitude.
Our desire in this moment is to come before you with our prayers of thanksgiving.
For some of us the words we offer will flow easily from our lips.
For others, trying to name our blessings may prove difficult.
Thanksgiving 2020 is vastly different from previous years. There may be: a new table at which to sit,
a much smaller crowd,
dear ones absent,
worries crowding out our sense of blessing.
These realities may reshape our prayers from years past.
Whatever our reality, O God,
we ask that you help us focus not so much on material things,
(whether there is abundance or scarcity)
but rather on how we are living our lives.
Help us recognize all the ways you are present in our life this year.
Help us gather the strength we need for today
and for all our tomorrows.
Grant us the satisfaction of intimacy with Jesus,
your great gift to us, through whom you offer
Living Water, Bread of life,
more than we can ask or imagine.
Help us to extend our prayers of thanksgiving to you
into tomorrow with joyful spirits.
We are loved and blessed and thankful. Amen.
Written by Rev. Henrietta Stith, adapted.
click here to download this week's bulletin!