FRIDAY, October 9 – MONDAY, October 12, 2015
Thanksgiving – More Than A Weekend Holiday with James Cowan
Using the second of the Prayers of General Thanksgiving, on page 129 of The Book of Alternative Services as a focus for our thoughts and conversations during this weekend, we explore the depths of the concept of thanksgiving.
This prayer is a beautiful example of Thanksgiving for life in its fullness, and may be for us a pattern for making our lives “lives of Thanksgiving.” This prayer covers all of life – the material and the spiritual, the earthy and the heavenly. It does not focus on one facet of life, or build up on part of life to the exclusion of another. There is nothing, no human experience whatever, that cannot be included in this prayer.
In the Concise Oxford Dictionary, definition of the word Thanksgiving is “expression of gratitude especially to God.” But when we look at the Hebrew root of the concept of thanksgiving we will discover that definition to be restrictive and will find a life rich in action, poetry, feeling, and intellectual wonder.
This weekend begins with Friday dinner and ends with breakfast on Monday. The weekend will be filled with worship, theme sessions, community and work projects to help get the Sorrento Centre site closed for the winter.
JAMES COWAN is the Incumbent of the Anglican parishes of Salmon Arm and Armstrong/Enderby. His broad experience of the Church includes more than twenty years as pastor and priest; involvement in several national church committees, including co-chairing the Anglican/Lutheran Task Force leading to Full Communion between those churches in 2001.
In his years since ordination, James has enjoyed leading retreats, small group studies, and one-to-one sessions of spiritual direction that have enabled others to grasp more fully their call to ministry through Baptism.
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