IFLC works to promote interfaith Thanksgiving celebrations

More and more religious congregations, in the metropolitan Detroit area and around the country, are finding common ground by participating in interfaith observations of the Thanksgiving holiday.

In the Detroit metropolitan area, interfaith Thanksgiving services are scheduled in Birmingham, Farmington, Troy, Warren and West Bloomfield, as well as in other locations.  Participating congregations represent the entire religious spectrum of the region.

“The spirit and celebration of Thanksgiving give us many opportunities to see how our faith values overlap with our public lives,” according to Robert Bruttell, chair of the board of the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit (IFLC).  “Thanksgiving, in both the actual sense of feeling grateful for all that we have, and in the civic holiday we celebrate this month, is a very important part of our lives as Americans.”

The IFLC is gathering information about those celebrations in our region and posting them on the organization’s website at detroitinterfaithcouncil.org.  In addition, the IFLC is assembling samples of prayers, music and other texts appropriate for interfaith Thanksgiving celebrations, also available on the group’s website.  “We are hoping to provide a resource that will help other groups plan similar observations, both in this region and elsewhere in the country,” Bruttell said.

While the celebrations vary in many ways, all of them find some way to celebrate the values we share as Americans and our gratitude for our tradition of religious freedom., Bruttell said.

For example, in Warren, the city government is hosting an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration in City Hall at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, in recognition of the city’s increasing racial, ethnic and religious diversity.  Earlier this year, Warren’s city council adopted a resolution “Re-affirming the American Core Values of Freedom, Equality, and Justice.”  According to a July column in the Macomb Daily, "Warren officials and local religious leaders want the public to feel that the city is a good place to live and work and that everyone is welcome in Macomb County's most populated community."

Other local interfaith Thanksgiving gatherings are being held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Farmington Hills, First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, at the Bharatiya Temple in Troy, and at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in West Bloomfield.

“The benefits of diversity are just as critical for us as they were for the Pilgrims,” Bruttell said.  “This is a truth worth honoring and celebrating in as many religious and civic ways as we can find to do so.  For my sake, I am grateful that many of us will give thanks very much in keeping with our forebears who recognized how important an appreciation of family, friends and food are to our civic life.”