I am thankful for the liturgical year making connections easy.

Last Sunday at St Philip's we had the opportunity to celebrate God's creation. We blessed our pets and all that they bring to our lives and also took time to learn about and reflect on the place of water in our faith and in our lives.



This Sunday, in that amazing way that the liturgical calendar works, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving and starting our annual Stewardship campaign. Simultaneously, young people from our parish and across the province will be gathering in Abbotsford for the annual BCYAYM Fall Conference which this year will coincidentally be exploring eco-theology and our connection to God's creation. One of the things that connects all these celebrations is the opportunity to reflect on and give thanks for God's gifts to us.

Harvest Thanksgiving in Canada comes from the Church's annual celebration of the gifts that we receive from God in creation that sustain our lives. It is a time to recognize that it is not through our own fabulousness and skill and hard work that we are here - it is thanks to God who placed each of us in the midst of this huge thing called creation and called it good. Food and water are two of the most basic and necessary gifts for which we give thanks in this celebration, but as we begin our annual stewardship campaign we are asked to consider all the gifts that we have received and how we in turn are called to give.

Gifts and giving will be the theme of the next series of weekly reflections. As we move from Thanksgiving to Advent and Christmas and through our stewardship campaign, there are many different questions we can ask together about gifts in the context of our faith. For this week, how about a traditional Thanksgiving question:

What are you thankful for?