United in Thanksgiving

Dressed in traditional Arabic hijab, Maria Khani stood before a pulpit in the St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church and sang prayers dating back thousands of years. Her culturally prescribed modesty did not cloak the beauty of her voice as she chanted a section of the Koran to members of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council.

Minutes before Khani’s performance at the council’s second ecumenical Thanksgiving service on Sunday, Carol Weinfeld read a Jewish Sukkot prayer from Temple Emanuel of Baltimore. Sukkot, a harvest festival, is celebrated as a thanksgiving for the bounty of nature, Weinfeld told the crowd before her reading.

“In awe and thanksgiving, we worship the one who is holy, the source of blessing,” Weinfeld said.

The ecumenical gathering also featured Scripture readings and prayers from Roman Catholics, Protestants, Christian Scientists and Latter-day Saints congregants. The theme, as expected, was giving thanks.

All worshippers and denominations offered prayers of gratitude to “God, Most High.” Although the definition of God between these people of faith may have differed, all agreed a higher power was to be praised for their good fortune.

“This is an opportunity for people of different religious beliefs to come together and offer thanksgiving to God,” Rev. Jan Wiley said. “Our purpose isn’t to convert each other but to respect the tradition from which we come.”

Breaking bread at the close of the service has become an integral part of that concept, Wiley said.

“We all share bread,” Wiley said. “Every culture has some form of bread.”

From Pita, wheat, cinnamon-raisin, sweet and sourdough, it was a smorgasbord of bread covering a set of fold-out tables in front of the church. The varieties of baked grains nearly matched the array of religious beliefs gathered within the building’s four walls.

The faithful also shared the ability to sing. Young and old, from nearly every faith present that evening, a choir numbering in the hundreds belted out “Look at the World,” a song of unity.

Watching the group sing together epitomized the council’s hopes for the evening, Wiley said.

“All of our traditions can celebrate this holiday,” Wiley said. “It’s not a religious holiday. It’s not Catholic or Islamic or Protestant. It’s national. We can all give thanks.”

Nothing could have summed up this idea up better than the reading of President George Washington’s 1789 “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.” Bill Fugard of Community United Methodist read the proclamation.

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor,” Fugard read.

And thus began the national celebration of Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of each November, “that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions,” Washington said in the proclamation that Fugard read aloud.

The purpose is not to ignore the differences, Wiley said. “It’s about moving beyond toleration and living in harmony,” she said.

“We need to learn about each other,” Khani said. “It’s healthy for the community, for the youth. I wish we could do it more often.”