ASBURY FIRST MONDAY READER | DECEMBER 08, 2025

CONTENTS: THE ANNUAL INTERFAITH THANKSGIVING DAY SERVICE

- by REV. KATHY THIEL

ADVENT DEVOTIONAL WEEK 2: LEAN INTO...

On Thanksgiving Day this year, the Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service took place here at Asbury First. Our chancel was filled with clergy from other faith traditions and our sanctuary was filled with community members holding a vast variety of beliefs, including atheists and agnostics. There are many who attend more than one religious service and who are part of more than one body of faith.

All are welcome.

We truly felt this on Thanksgiving Day. There were clergy present from the Roman Catholic diocese, two Unitarian Churches, a Baptist Church, the Islamic Center, and a church united long ago by the merging of a Baptist and a Methodist church. There were Rabbis from two synagogues and a retired Presbyterian chaplain. We all came together on this national holiday to say thank you and offer gratitude for all that we have.

Everyone had a voice - the Imam chanted the Muslim call to prayer, his voice filling the sanctuary with holy sound. One of the rabbis used the shofar to start the service. The new minister from the downtown Unitarian church preached a sermon that called us to think and be glad. Every voice mattered. Every belief system was honored. As we gathered together, there was a spirit of festivity, like a long-overdue reunion.  

We enjoyed passing the peace at the start of the service, and then after the service we enjoyed a very joyous reception of cookies and conversation. We were each reminded that amidst a community of people with different religious beliefs we are still all one. These beliefs do not have to separate us. We can find the ways that we share common space, seen and unseen.  

We share this city of Rochester and its surrounding towns; we share a concern for people of our community and this world to be healthy and whole; we share a desire that all children be safe and educated and well-fed and housed. Most importantly, what connects us all is the love we share. For our families and friends, for our churches and synagogues and mosques, for the forest and stream and for God. We all have love and gratitude in common and when we met in love and shared the love of our hearts the whole sanctuary was filled with joy.  

Find that space where love lives and encourage it to grow by using it daily to reach out to someone different from you in any way at all. Celebrate the difference and learn from each other. That place you share will grow and feed the world when you step into a new understanding together. 

ADVENT DEVOTIONAL WEEK 2:

Leaning Into...

"Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

Romans 5:5

CAN YOU IMAGINE . . . leaning into the frustrations and uncertainties of each day while being pressed in from all sides by the challenges of your personal life as well as the chaos of the world? 

I imagine many of us can.

CAN YOU IMAGINE . . . leaning into your deep desire to draw near to Compassionate God for rest, comfort and glimpses of peace?  

I’m hopeful many of us can.

CAN YOU IMAGINE . . . this Advent season leaning into God’s promises to be with you in all circumstances and to grant you strength, patience and perseverance?  

My prayer is that we, with Christ’s help, can.

CAN YOU IMAGINE . . . an invitation that draws us into the story again of birthings, new beginnings and fresh starts as we enter the church’s New Year? We celebrate the birth of Jesus and an invitation to lean into the Incarnation, for God takes on flesh in and through Jesus Christ, who would come and is with us now, bringing wholeness, healing and redemption in each new day. 

CAN YOU IMAGINE . . .that in the midst of today’s troubled world Jesus calls us into a season of Hope? Yes, Hope – and he invites us to be collaborators with him in re-creating the reality of the world in which we live. Leaning into this hope, may there be born in us an intentionality to nurture our faith in Jesus Christ so that we may experience His Light and Presence at work in our lives and the world.

CAN YOU IMAGINE . . .

REFLECTION:

• Imagine what you are leaning into today - news of doom and gloom? news that is divisive? messages of hope and inspiration? – what is the source of these messages? What emotions are drawn from you? 
• What do you desire to be born in you?