Thanksgiving Letter
September 22, 2017
“He paints the wayside flower He lights the evening star” Hymn 258
Dear Friends,
During my recent leave, I was blessed to spend some time in a very very quiet place, away from the city on Denman Island. After I had been there a number of days I found myself ‘waking up’ in a number of ways. Although it was very quiet there, I noticed that it wasn’t silent. There were definitely sounds but they had quite a different rhythm, intensity, and meaning from what we are used to here. My hosts raised chickens, including a rooster named Sharky, who crowed every morning before sunrise! So I began being awake every day while it was still dark. Very soon awake meant up and out on the beach to see the sunrise every day, an unexpectedly restful and revitalizing activity I would not previously have chosen.
On one of those mornings my host happened to be up as well and as I was heading out she went to the hen house and gave me an egg still warm from the hen. There were also apples from the tree, tomatoes from the vine, blackberries, fresh baked bread, and an abundance of extremely nourishing natural beauty in farm, forest, and ocean. I walked with the deer and paddled with seals, otters, mink, loons, herons, and numerous other wild friends. To cool down, I swam in the ocean nearly every evening as the sun was setting.
I can’t explain fully why the rhythms of the sunrise, the tide, the harvest, the moon, and the wind are so healing to our spirits but I think we all know they are. First Nations friends have shared with me the phrase, “all my relations,” a wonderful way of expressing the sacredness of our human connection to all that surrounds us and the truth that we are part of nature. When we look around us with that spirit in our hearts, the loving hand of The Creator becomes vividly apparent in all our surroundings.
In that same spirit, and in special thanks at this time of year especially for God’s bountiful harvest, please join me and my family in making a special gift to God through St. Helen’s this Thanksgiving. A special envelope is enclosed. Please place it in the collection plate on any of the Sundays of harvest season or mail it to the church if you wish. Please feel free to leave it at the office during the week if you are going to be away.
Harvest Thanksgiving services will be held at 8am and 10am on Sunday October 8th. I hope we can all join in Thanksgiving worship that day at St. Helen’s or wherever we may be celebrating with family and loved ones.
May the Lord of the Harvest bring you and your loved ones blessings in abundance this Thanksgiving.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Scott Gould
Rector