Promoting interfaith Thanksgiving celebrations

The Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit has issued a press release about the growing trend of interfaith observations of the Thanksgiving holiday in our region and across the country.

For the text of the press release, click here.

'Let us give thanks . . . . '

Robert Bruttell, chair of the board of the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit, has written a message about Thanksgiving and its place at the intersection of faith and "the so-called secular."

For the text of the message, click here.

Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation

On Nov. 28, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln ordered government offices closed for a day of Thanksgiving, setting a precedent for the national holiday that emerged from a number of observances   held on various dates in different locations around the country.

Two years later, on  Oct. 3, 1863, Lincoln's issued a proclamation inviting "my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

Click here for a link to the proclamation.

A sample program for an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration

The Metropolitan Christian Council Detroit-Windsor coordinated an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration for decades.  Click here to see the program from the interfaith Thanksgiving ceremony held Nov. 28, 2008.