Connected While Apart
Different Kinds of Pilgrims

The Thanksgiving altar at Mayfield, November 2018.

Dear Mayfield,
In her 1983 children’s book Molly’s Pilgrim, author Barbara Cohen wrote this simple description:  “A Pilgrim is someone who came here from the other side to find freedom.”  At about the same time a Thanksgiving Litany was included in Alternatives To Celebrate, published in 1987.  This litany was first printed for the public by the Foundation for Change and was inspired by essays written by Puerto Rican school children in New York City.  I found it tucked inside my copy of Molly’s Pilgrim which I haven’t read for many years.  It is a litany to which we could add a few new verses.  In all of our ongoing differences, we seek the places of commonality from which we can stretch, grow, learn, and flourish together in our diversity.

We thank you, God.

We thank you , God, for who we are.

Some of us look like the people who lived here long ago, so close to this land that their arrival is not recorded. With them we are pilgrims in this land.

We thank you, God, that you are a pilgrim with us.

Some of us look like the Spanish who came in big ships.  They took the land from the Indians, and thought it was theirs.  With them we are pilgrims in this land.

We thank you, God, that you are a pilgrim with us.

Some of us look like the English, who also came in big ships.  They took the land from the Indians and the Spanish, and thought it was theirs.  With them we are pilgrims in this land.

We thank you, God, that you are a pilgrim with us.

Some of us look like the Africans, who also came in big ships.  They did not choose to come, and they had no land and no freedom.  With them we are pilgrims in this land.

We thank you, God, that you are a pilgrim with us.

Some of us look like the Asians, who came in big ships across the other ocean.  They came looking for work and freedom, and many found discrimination and injustice.  With them we are pilgrims in this land.

We thank you, God, that you are a pilgrim with us.

All of us are different.  No two of us look exactly alike.  But we are all made in the image of God, who came to earth that we might be one.

Together with pilgrims past and those yet to come, we thank you, God, for who we are, and we pray that you show us what we are to be.  Amen

Peace, Martha