Churches unite for Thanksgiving

Members of local Lutheran, Methodist and Catholic churches led an ecumenical Thanksgiving service last week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The joint worship service last Tuesday was led by Jonathan Holland of Plains/Paradise United Methodist Church, Father Jeff Benusa of St. James Catholic Church and Michael Murray of First Lutheran Church, which hosted the evening. Karen Dwyer of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Thompson Falls was the pianist for the service.

Ecumenical events support worldwide Christian unity. In support of that, the representatives of each church congregation led different parts of the worship service, with Benusa, Murray and Holland joining together for the final blessing.

The message for the evening was delivered by Brian Meaden, the Executive Director of Camp Bighorn in Paradise. "This is an amazing week just to practice gratitude," Meaden told the nearly 30 community members in attendance. The gospel reading for the evening was from Luke chapter 17, the lesson of Jesus healing men with leprosy and how a Samaritan man turned back to Jesus after he was healed to thank God. Meaden said the Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews at the time. "This was like the Griz and the Bobcats, but worse," he joked. He added that hope was at the center of the week of Thanksgiving, and of the Bible story. "May we all walk with gratitude to Jesus," he stated.

Charles Bickenhauser of Plains shared a special poem and prayer for the audience and the congregations took a special offering during the evening that went to Sanders County Coalition for Families.