Sunday before Thanksgiving. Themes can include gratitude to God, gratitude for loved ones, gathering the family together, breaking bread together, Native American perspective on the holiday, Puritans, remembering those less fortunate.
From Tapestry of Faith Curricula
Unitarian Universalist Perspectives
Guest at Your Table
Guest at Your Table is an annual tradition in which congregation members take home a box featuring people that the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) has worked with recently. These people are your 'guests,' and you are asked to share your blessings with them each meal by putting your spare change in the box. As you give to your guests, you can learn about them by reading the Stories of Hope booklet. UUSC uses the funds raised through this program to support their human-rights work in the United States and around the world!
Most congregations begin their Guest at Your Table celebration on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but please check your congregational calendar for your opening date.
Some congregations celebrate bread communion at this service. This ritual can include the breaking and passing around of bread throughout the congregation. Congregants eat the bread, or feed it to one another, while being led in a reflection about gratitude, sharing and being together in community.
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We gather at Thanksgiving, in some sense, to retell the creation myth of our country. In this myth is our very best and our very worst: a boldness; a care for the common good; a wish to say we before I. Yet from even before the first Thanksgiving feast, it’s a story of theft and violence, and a...Reading | By David Schwartz | November 15, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Freedom, Generations, History, Humanism, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Thanksgiving -
Seeds, scattered on fertile ground, are warmed by the sun and fed by the soil. They sprout and grow, producing great fields of grain. The grain is harvested and ground into flour and shipped across the nation....Ritual | By Michael J. Tino | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Body, Christianity, Community, Food, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism -
I [do not] mean to present myself as some kind of bodhisattva of compassion. However, in my better moments—at least in my more conscious moments—while I’m eating, I do try to imagine the lives and even the deaths of the creatures who nourish me. I try to think of the freedom and exhilaration...Reading | By Lillian Nye | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Activism, Animals, Body, Earth Day, Ethics, Food, Food Justice, Nature, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism, Work -
Eternal God, Source of All Creation, we would give substance to our thankfulness by resolving to make right use of the gifts we have received from thy bounty. With thy gift of the senses we would fashion and preserve a world of beauty for all....Meditation | By Robert Walsh | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Beauty, Compassion, Discernment, Gratitude, Justice, Peace, Responsibility, Searching, Thanksgiving, Truth
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Let us rejoice for the families who have gathered this Thanksgiving to express their thanks and to celebrate the bounty of their lives. Let us join together in support of those whose families are far away, with distances in many forms. Let us hold one another in gentle reverence this holiday of...Meditation | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Community, Death, Family, Gratitude, Illness, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
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Every day we experience hunger and yearning: for food, for approval, for respect, for love, for meaningful work, for any and enough work, for home, for family, for friends, for health, for healing, for hope, for the departed, for the newly arrived, for the green trees, for the cool clean waters, ...Meditation | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Gratitude, Healing, Health, Humanism, Love, Meaning, Purpose, Relationships, Secular, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism -
Let us join hands and hearts in gratitude on this wondrous day, where we have the abundance of our lives before us. We remember, on this day of bounty, all those who do not have enough, who are afraid, who are lonely, and who suffer....Meditation | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Abundance, Commitment, Compassion, Connections, Fall, Food, Generosity, Gratitude, Poverty, Secular, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism -
T... starts out with Turkey and with Tofu, and Together, H...reminds us of Happiness, may it grow beyond all measure. A...means All who are returning, a reunion in Fall, N...for Newcomers to our Fellowship, and hearty welcome to all! K...for Kind friends with whom we will share dinner, S... means...Chalice Lighting | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Community, Fall, Food, Gratitude, Happiness, Integrity, Playfulness, Relationships, Thanksgiving, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
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Once there was and once there was not a family of dogs. Like many dog families, there were dogs that had wandered off the street and dogs with fine pedigrees and dogs from the shelter and dogs who had been born into the family. They ran together. They played together....Story | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animal Blessing, Animals, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Thanksgiving
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Each of us will be grateful this Thanksgiving in differing ways, Gathered in our separate families, Each with our own distinct recipes, customs and traditions; For some will have pies of mince, And others of pumpkin or apple; And some will dine early And some sit down late to the meal, Passing on...Meditation | By Gary Kowalski | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Family, Food, Generations, Gratitude, Secular, Thanksgiving -
And still, we are grateful.Prayer | By Connie Simon | November 22, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, WorshipWeb, Worship -
May we whisper thank you for all that is good in our lives. (Thank you) May we shout thank you! for the abundance of blessings. (Thank you) May we feel thank you, thank you, thank you, deep within our hearts and around us right now. May we be thankful, down to our bones, for this time together....Prayer | By Debra Haffner | November 16, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Ask yourself, in your heart: What or who are you grateful for?Meditation | By Susan Frederick-Gray | November 23, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Body, Connections, Gratitude, Spiritual Practice, Thanksgiving, WorshipWeb, Worship
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Something new could come out of this moment of discomfort; something like healing. This is our opportunity to reimagine what Thanksgiving could be — and who we could be.Reflection | By Daniel Gregoire | November 21, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Indigenous American, Responsibility, Thanksgiving -
An adequate Christmas would have you calm and open, taking it in, accepting whatever is. Slow it all down like you might be, in some way, attuned to the pace of the Eternal. If you need, you can fake it at first.Reflection | By Jake Morrill | November 29, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Advent, Balance, Challenge, Choice, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Courage, Direct Experience, Family, God, Self-Care, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice / Yule