Dan Antion

Come Ye Thankful People

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This post originally ran in 2019, when Norm was still in charge. Today is Thanksgiving here in the United States and I will be away from my computer for significant portions of the day. I will get to your comments and to the posts of the participants, but I will be late.

St John's Episcopal Church
Everyone is welcome to enter these simple doors.

Somehow, I knew that with Thanksgiving always being celebrated on a Thursday, that my choice for Thursday Doors was going to be thankful. I knew it and yet, I couldn’t quite figure it out. Then, on Sunday morning, it hit me. Well, it was more of a she, and she didn’t hit me, she impressed me. I read Natalie’s beautiful post where she featured some of the final blooming flowers from her garden. She also talked about bringing flowers into her greenhouse so she would have flowers to view and tend to during the winter. That reminded me of the hymn mentioned in the title and that made me think of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

We were members of this church for a few years. The Anglican Church didn’t recognize Thanksgiving as a holy/holiday, but Father Peet liked to connect the dots between giving thanks, the things we had to be thankful for and He from whom those blessings flow. I need to be careful that I don’t get tangled up in another hymn. Anyway, Father Peet held a service in which we could bring the bread we were serving for Thanksgiving dinner and have it blessed.

We would place our bread in a large basket when we entered the church. The servers would bring the basket to the altar when they brought up the gifts of bread and wine, and Father Peet would bless the bread. The basket would contain everything from homemade loaves, to store-bought bread, to coffee cakes and desert breads and once included a tube of Poppin’ Fresh Crescent rolls – who doesn’t love those?

We were members of this church during a somewhat challenging period for the building. You may not be able to tell, but the siding on the buildings is vinyl. In the mid-1980s, both the church and the rectory had to be repaired and painted, and the congregation wanted to expand the community center. There wasn’t enough money to do all that work. As if often the case in small congregations, there wasn’t really enough money to do any of that work. The building committee recommended starting a fundraising campaign in order to raise money over a two-year period. To keep the contributions in an acceptable range, the decision was made to cover the buildings in vinyl siding, but to use period-specific siding and trim on the church and the rectory. The buildings look good, but the experience illustrates how hard it is to maintain these buildings.

The Rectory, with the shaped shingles and gingerbread trim was hard to see be covered in vinyl, but the crews did a wonderful job.
Come Ye Thankful People Come
I once had the privilege of climbing the tower and winding the clock.
Now I need a line and pole filter
It’s interesting to see the pump jacks on the building again. There’s always work to do.
A Little Free Library. So good to see this on the front lawn of the church.
I need a line filter.
The back half of the building was added when the church was renovated,
An old standard, this was sung at Thanksgiving as long as I can remember.

Happy Thanksgiving to the door followers in the United States. If you folks in other countries want to share in the traditions of this day, I’d recommending going straight for a slice of pie, topped with a generous amount of whipped cream.

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100 comments

    • Thanks Sally. As is often the case, this church was made special because of the man in the alter. The Thanksgiving service was his idea, and I thought it was wonderful. In June, in honor of the Church’s namesake (St. John) he had a service in the early afternoon where he blessed family pets. People brought dogs, cats, bunnies, fish in a bowl, chickens, one person brought a goat. The service was outside next to his garden. I hope you have a great weekend.

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  13. Those church doors do look very welcoming. I like the idea of blessing everyone’s bread.

    Wishing you and your bride and Faith a wonderful Thanksgiving day, with a few extra treats for the tuxedos.

    Enjoy the lingering nice weather. Tomorrow and perhaps Sunday not so nice! Hope you can avoid going out on Black Friday!
    Ginger

    Liked by 2 people

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    • Thanks Ginger. We will do our best to have a nice day, and we will avoid the craziness tomorrow. No amount of savings (on something we don’t need) is worth that.

      I hope you have a wonderful day and a calm and relaxing weekend.

      Liked by 1 person

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  26. Happy Thanksgiving, Dan! A lovely red door, and the little library is a darling.

    I find myself missing all the urban parts that made me who I am. Rural is nice too, even preferable right now, but I’m always happy when I return to my Ljubljana. This was last August. Not as many doors, sorry to say, but I wish to have these sights together like this. https://manjameximexcessive6.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/thursday-doors-24-11-22-urban-ljubljana/#Ljubljana#Slovenia#streetart

    Liked by 2 people

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    • Thanks Manja. It’s always nice to go home for a visit. Both of my homes are in urban areas, but I drive through several hundred miles of rural to get between them. Your doors are lovely and they should be the way you like them.

      Liked by 2 people

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    • Thanks Robbie. You have seen that door before. Also, I’ve featured many Episcopal churches over time, all with bright red doors. They did a nice job of preserving the architectural style of both buildings.

      Liked by 1 person

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    • They did a nice job on those buildings. We have vinyl siding that’s meant to look like cedar shakes on our house. I’ve had people ask if we’d ever consider replacing the shakes with vinyl siding.

      You shared some wonderful photos today – thanks.

      Liked by 1 person

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  43. Decorated red doors on a white church — can there be anything clearer in message? It’s certainly a struggle to keep up a congregation, and the older buildings, which hold real meaning for people, require a lot of commitment. I loved that you posted the music; it’s not a hymn I grew up with, but I like it a lot. It’s too late to wish you a happy Thanksgiving, but I’ll sincerely wish you happy leftovers.

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    • Happy leftovers is appropriate. When they got new hymnals, they let us have the old ones if we wanted one. Of course I did! That was one of the best churches, until the priest retired and the region split into two over some nonsense – humans, they can’t even get God right.

      Liked by 1 person

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  44. […] Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/11/24/come-ye-thankful-people/ […]

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  47. Happy Thanksgiving, Dan! I am celebrating this special day on my side of the border. I am thanks for our connection, our conversations and the thought that there will be many more to come. Come Ye Thankful People Come is a favourite of mine. I sang it many times with my grandparents who knew first hand “all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.”

    Liked by 1 person

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