Category: Our Neighbors

This morning’s Gospel reading is John 20:1–9:

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

To begin the day: the Royal Choral Society: ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Handel’s Messiah

‘Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620’, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899.

Before they established their colony in Plymouth, the Mayflower Compact was signed aboard the Mayflower on November 11, 1620 by the Pilgrims. They used the Julian Calendar, which, at that time, was ten days behind the Gregorian Calendar. Signing the document were 41 of the ship’s 101 passengers, while the Mayflower was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor within the hook at the northern tip of Cape Cod. They had planned to settle in Virginia but had reached America farther north.

Mayflower Compact (Modern Version)

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!

Update:

On PBS Thanksgiving Day at 8:00 pm EST (check your local listings)

The story of the Pilgrims – who they were, what drove them on – their searing first years in America and pivotal interactions with Native Americans – how they succeeded and how they failed – and how and why we have come to remember them as we do – is a tale far more harrowing and strange – and far more revealing – than the Thanksgiving myth we think we know.

From acclaimed filmmaker Ric Burns, The Pilgrims uncovers the riveting story of the men and women of the Mayflower – exploring the historic forces and personalities that motivated their crossing – and the harrowing events that unfolded in their crucial first decade in Massachusetts.