Town Gathers for Thanksgiving Service

Gathering for the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service Monday night, about 300 community members enjoyed a warm, thoughtful and festive hour in the sanctuary at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.   Rev. Howard Anderson, who is completing his second year as rector at St. Matthew’s, welcomed the audience and noted how this annual religious event ‘brings us all together, the way it should be all the time.’ Then in the spirit of his previous ministries in Minnesota where he worked closely with Native Americans, Anderson recited a traditional Lakota chant that reached every corner of the church.   After a reading from The Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) by Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben of Kehillat Israel, and a reading from the New Testament by Monsignor Liam Kidney of Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Rabbi Amy Bernstein delivered a heartfelt and passionate homily.   Just four months on the job at KI after 14 years as a rabbi in Duluth, Minnesota, Bernstein urged everyone to appreciate the everyday beauty of Pacific Palisades that is taken for granted”the flowers that bloom every day of the year!”and to consciously ‘slow down your lives this Thanksgiving, stop the mad rush of technology, and just be.’   After readings by Brother Balananda of the Self-Realization Fellowship and Pastor Daryl Lohmeyer of the Palisades Lutheran Church, the clergy of the community led ‘A Prayer for Unity.’   Thomas Neenan, music director for The Parish of Saint Matthew, led the interfaith choir, joined by Roger Daggy, the parish organist; James Vail, the choirmaster and organist at Palisades Presbyterian church; and soloist Ed Levy, baritone.