Worship Resources for

Thanksgiving

 Resources for Church Publishing (.pdf)

A Thanksgiving Prayer

We gather together this day, O God, because others in times past have done the same, an example and model for us and our prayers of thanksgiving.  Like our predecessors, we come to you in a time of great need and transition, in the midst of circumstances which daily demonstrate we are not in control of our lives.   So often, in focusing on these problems and needs, we forget our past, those who have gone before us, without whom we would not, could not, be here.

            On this day we remember families, communities, and nations created by your gifts of grace and guidance.  Whether Israel of old, or our Pilgrim fathers and mothers, we are heirs of those who have been brought from slavery to freedom, and from death to new life.  Your promises to them are ours.

            Today we are called to imagine new ways of being together, as family, as friends, as members of church and society living into these promises of new life and abundance.  Give us the willingness, the determination, and the courage to work with others to find new and better ways to be the people you wish us to be.

We give thanks for what we have been so richly given. We give thanks for what we have yet to experience and receive.  We give thanks for the grace to understand how, together with our neighbors and even with those with whom we disagree, we can live into your future.

Gather us, cause us to remember our stories of the past, give us the gift of imagination for the future. In the midst of our thanksgiving, give us boldness and confidence to go forward in ministry and service in our church and our world.  At all times and in all places, may we give thanks to you for your guidance, for making everything we've been, everything we are, and everything we will be, possible.

Amen.
November 25, 2008

Berkeley, CA -- Donn Morgan, President and Dean, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, offers the following prayer this Thanksgiving: