In a call for tolerance, peace and a respect for all religious traditions as spokes of the same wheel, some 200 people gathered for music, prayer and meditation at Ashland's 23rd annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration.
"I love this — it embodies the true spirit of Thanksgiving and gratitude," said Annie Funkhausen of Ashland. "I'm one of the unaffiliated people and I love to come together with all the traditions and see how we really speak the same language."
Gathered in a hall behind First Methodist Church, the crowd heard rousing Jewish songs from the Klezmer Band of Temple Emek Shalom, meditated on the Buddhist "Loving Kindness Sutra" read by Mari Gayatri (correction below) of Medford and heard Rich Lang of Southern Oregon University's Omega House call on people to look beyond the day's news to hear the "untold story of people connecting with each other, the earth and the divine" in a "remarkable conversation."
The informal, upbeat gathering has become a tradition for many people and their out-of-town holiday guests, as a warm-up for the big Thanksgiving meal and a kickoff of the holiday season, the day before Ashland's Festival of Light.
It always begins with the singing of "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" and ends in a big hand-holding circle, singing, "You are a circle, you are healing me, I am a circle, I am healing you, we are one."
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Representing the Hindu tradition, Robin Noll and SwamiTay led the assembly in laughter-filled rounds of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" — substituting "She" and the names of many other deities, as randomly tossed out by the crowd.
After telling a parable of a tiger who brought food daily to a crippled fox, Rev. Ruth Kirby of Living Truth Center in Central Point said the message is to emulate the tiger, not the fox — giving service to those in need, rather than waiting for God to meet all your needs.
"There's only one divine source. The life force is in each of us," Kirby said. "We are never separate. We always have everything we need — and together are capable of creating heaven on earth."
Noting the "sense of hollowness" to our "overcrowded lives" and the coldness of our hi-tech communications, Quaker elder Barbara Rosen said our deeper thoughts get us out of the "reality show" and into the real.
Ashland's new Unitarian minister, Heather Lynn Hanson, said thankfulness, even if we're not sure what we're thankful for, helps us be more aware and alive "and feel the plentitude of all that is living brush against our heart."
She added, "We give thanks today for oneness which transcends all separation faith without fanaticism ... and may we be enlarged not by our fears by our hopes."
Chris Hince, of Phoenix, praised the service for "bringing people together from all traditions and giving me a sense of community because I don't have a lot of family here."
Visiting from California, Edda Smith called the service "soul searching, a reminder that we're all one and I hope I never forget it because we can get so caught up in our emotions."
Taking pains not to leave any faith out, host minister Michael Powell offered thanks for the Pacific Northwest's largest denomination, the un-affiliateds, and mentioned that an Islamic cleric had to cancel because of illness.
When jokingly asked if there were anyone present representing devil-worshippers and cannibals, the crowd was silent, except for a boy about 10 years of age who gleefully shot his hand up in the air, bringing down the house.
John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
Correction: The original version of this story included an inaccurate first name and religious affiliation for Mari Gayatri. This version has been corrected. Return to sentence with error
