Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service

By Brad Lucht

There will be an Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service at St. Peter & All Saints Episcopal Church, 100 E. Red Bridge Rd, November 19.  

The First Baptist Church, Red Bridge Church of Christ and St Mary & St Mark Coptic Church will participate as well.

The service will begin at 5 p.m. in the nave, followed by refreshments in the parlor at 6 p.m.

Father Jonathan Frazier explains how the idea came about.

“Three pastors on the corner here (Red Bridge Road and Wornall), plus the priest from the Coptic Church, get together for lunch once in awhile. We talk about all sorts of things, doing things together.  I don’t know who thought of doing an ecumenical Thanksgiving service, but we all thought it was a great idea.

“Somebody suggested we do it here this year,” Frazier continued, “but it’s going to rotate amongst all of us.  And we all have great worship spaces.”

Each pastor or priest is going to do what is consistent with their denomination.   

“The Episcopalians will have a litany of Thanksgiving from the prayer book, and probably a couple of hymns with a piano,” Frazier explained.  “But the Coptic church will have a service in the Coptic language.

“The Red Bridge Church of Christ has music, but it’s a capella singing.  So they’re going to lead all of us together in a couple of hymns a capella.”

Each denomination gets 15 minutes.  

“We all participate as much as we can,” Frazier concluded.  “We’re not blending anything except our presence and our thanks.”

For more information about this ecumenical Thanksgiving service, contact the St. Peter & All Saints church office by phone at 816-942-1066 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or by email at office@stpaas.org.