Vineyarders Join Faiths to Offer Holiday Thanks

By NIS KILDEGAARD

"For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and sky
and sea," read Varian Cassat from her place at the pulpit, and the
congregation sent its response echoing from the high ceilings of Grace
Church: "We thank you, God."

The litany of gratitude found its cadence and continued:

"For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and our
friends:"

"We thank you, God."

In the waning afternoon light of the Sunday before Thanksgiving,
Vineyarders of many faiths set aside their doctrinal differences to
express that universal and central religious impulse, the urge to give
thanks. The annual interfaith Thanksgiving service is a project of the
Island Clergy Association, a movable feast celebrated each year in a
different Vineyard house of worship.

"For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and
play:"

"We thank you, God."

Sunday's modest service - it drew fewer than a hundred
people to Grace Church - was stronger on giving thanks than on
bridging the chasms that divide faith from faith and fuel such murderous
hate in our modern world.

The Rev. Alden Besse, president of the clergy association and
associate rector of the host church, welcomed the congregation and
offered the opening prayer. "I give thanks," he declared,
"that we are able to be together not on the basis of the lowest
common denominator, but of highest common denominator, the presence of
God."

When Michele Lazerow of the Martha's Vineyard Hebrew Center
strummed her guitar and led the congregation in a traditional Hebrew
song, voices were lifted gamely as mouths shaped unfamiliar syllables:

"Hi-né ma tov u-ma na-im, She-vet a-chim gam
ya-chad," they sang, hesitantly at first and then with gathering
confidence. "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to
dwell in unity." And for a moment it was almost possible to
envision a world where the only roof large enough to embrace all of
worshiping humanity might be the blue dome of the sky.

Rupert Robinson of Trinity United Methodist Church in Oak Bluffs
read from Deuteronomy, the Old Testament story of God's rescue of
the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. At the center of that story
is manna, the bread from heaven that sustained the people during their
flight - it was such an unexpected nourishment that its Hebrew
name comes from a question: What is it?

Janet Holladay, a divinity school student and intern at the
Unitarian Universalist Church, read from the letters of Paul to the
Corinthians: "God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to
provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always
have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good
work."

Miss Holladay then became a puppeteer, bringing two cuddly skunks to
life as the Rev. Judith Campbell of the Unitarian Universalist Church
delivered the children's sermon, the story of how the animals of
the Island learned the meaning of Thanksgiving. Ms. Campbell said she
had chosen an animal story as a more universal message, wanting to reach
beyond the human history of the coming holiday: "The first
Thanksgiving," she noted, "is considered by some to be a day
of disenfranchisement for Native American peoples."

After learning that Thanksgiving is the way two-legged creatures
celebrate the bounty around them, the forest animals of the story are
shocked to discover that hunger and inadequate housing are actually
human problems on the Island. "I think there's some work to
do here, don't you?" declares one of the skunks. From
knowledge of need comes the urge to help, and the audience was invited
to chime in with their own response throughout the story:
"Wouldn't you?"

The grownup sermon came in the form of a dialogue between two of the
Island's freshman Methodist ministers, the Rev. Nancie Wnek of
Christ United in Vineyard Haven and the Rev. Mary Jane
O'Connor-Ropp of Trinity United in Oak Bluffs.

"When our bishop said, ‘I've got a place for
you,' and the district superintendent asked me, ‘Can you
speak Portuguese?' - and that was all he asked me, nothing
else - I had a clue that something wild was happening to
me," Pastor Wnek recalled. She continued:

"The diversity on this Island is so incredible - I just
love it. I'm especially proud that in our church, we have about
150 to 200 people who, every night of the week, use our building.
They're an Assembly of God congregation. They're wonderful,
wonderful Christians, and I feel honored to be a pastor in this church.

"Now, diversity is not easy. The concept is easy - but
the day-to-day reality and challenges are not easy. And I have a
commitment, as pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, to help and to
have an open door policy for these congregations.

"I celebrate diversity, and here's why. I believe that
diversity makes us better people. I believe that when we learn about
other cultures, and other traditions and other races, and when we put
aside our preconceived notions, whatever they are, we become stronger
and better people."

Pastor O'Connor-Ropp echoed her colleague's sentiments,
speaking both to the Vineyard's diversity and to the popular myths
about Island life.

"When I first found out I was coming here, I told the church I
was serving at the time, and they said to me, ‘Oh, you're
going down to be with all those people.' I don't know about
you, but I don't have a lot of rich people in my congregation. In
fact, we just had pledge Sunday, and I hope they are a lot poorer than
they were yesterday."

But on a more serious side, she said:

"This Island has the same problems that are anywhere -
in inner cities, in middle America. There's poverty here,
there's homelessness, there are hungry people, there's
domestic violence and enormous amounts of substance abuse. Anyone who
thinks this is a paradise filled with rich people with no problems
should really come here for awhile."

Pastor O'Connor-Ropp concluded:

"I'm honored to be a part of the diverse Island Clergy
Association. There are so many wonderful people who come together
- the interfaith gatherings that I've been part of have been
such a blessing. It's such a blessing to be together with Jewish
and Muslim and Buddhist and other Christian colleagues and friends on
the Island."

While Philip Dietterich displayed his growing mastery of the
church's new digital organ with a lovely musical interlude, a
collection was gathered for the Island Food Pantry. Afterward, the Rev.
Dr. Gerald Fritz of the Federated Church in Edgartown led the
congregation in prayers of thanks and prayers of concern for ailing
friends, for world leaders in a time of turmoil and for the fragile
cause of peace.

Here were no doctrines to be disputed, only the purest, most
universal elements of the religious impulse - the sense of wonder
and ensuing gratitude, the need to reach out and care for suffering
neighbors. Reverend Fritz closed with words that included us all:
"Hear us o God, by whatever name we call you."