The annual Interfaith Community Thanksgiving Observance, sponsored by the Southeast Lake County Interreligious Council, is a back-to-basics celebration of the holiday in which members of worship families in Deerfield and Highland Park are invited to join in prayer and social action.
This year’s service will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday at the First Presbyterian Church of Deerfield, 824 Waukegan Road.
“People of faith must join together,” said Rabbi Karyn Kedar of Congregation B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim, who will present a homily at the service. “When we raise our voices in songs of gratitude, all differences fade. And then we are connected by our optimism and by our hope that someday peace and healing may prevail.”
Houses of worship scheduled to participate in the interfaith service include: Pastor Suzan Hawkinson and associate pastor Alisa Secret, First Presbyterian Church of Deerfield; pastor David Kyllo, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church; cantor Nancy Landsman, Congregation Ahavat Olam; Morgan Pierce, Deerfield Baha’I Community; Rabbi Jodi Kornfeld, Beth Chaverim; pastor Brian Roots, Christ United Methodist Church; cantor Michael Davis, Lakeside Congregation for Reform Judaism, and associate pastor Roger Dart, Congregational Church of Deerfield, UCC.
The observance is a decades-long tradition that is the culmination of a lot of planning and collaboration among area houses of worship, Hawkinson said.
“All year long we talk and we pray for and support the presence of diverse faiths in our region. Every congregation matters in our community.”
Congregants are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item for the Deerfield Food Pantry. Financial contributions are donated to the Deerfield Emergency Assistance Fund, which offers aid to people who are in need of emergency food, shelter, transportation and even financial aid.
“It used to be called the Clergy Fund,” said Dr. Jerry Zacher, director of social services for the Deerfield Police Department and administrator of the fund. “It was principally raised at the interfaith service and then given to the police department to dispense.”
While the fund, in some cases, has been used to help people who find themselves stranded in Deerfield and need a place for the night, Zacher has found that it helps to fill in the gap for residents, who may not totally qualify for certain (financial) help, “but who are definitely in need, such as having to pay a utility bill or fix their car so they have the ability to get to their job,” he said. “The economy has made me aware it might be my next-door neighbor who may be in need.”
But at heart, the interfaith observance is an expression of community inclusiveness.
“Together we give thanks for our diversity and our common effort to help our village (and the surrounding area) be a place where faith exploration and faith claim is a powerful and tolerant expression,” Hawkinson said.