1. Remembrance Morning Worship
Bishop Justus Church of England School
Remember the Pilgrim Fathers - taking Risks
USA and Thanksgiving Day
Ordinary Time - 27th November 2014
Remembrance Morning Worship
The Thanksgiving feast happened nearly 400 years ago, but ever since, Americans have remembered the Pilgrim Fathers in a special ‘Thanksgiving’ holiday.
Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.
The Pilgrim Fathers took many risks to find a new home where they would have religious freedom. In 1620 one hundred Puritans boarded the ‘Mayflower’ headed for the ‘New World’. The Pilgrim Fathers viewed England as un-Godly place and moving from a bad to worse state. They believed that a new start in the New World was their only chance. Our reading is from Ephesians—it is a lectionary reading and reminds us that Christians are liberated in Christ.

2. Gather The Lord be with you And also with you
The Thanksgiving feast happened nearly 400 years ago, but ever since, Americans have remembered the Pilgrim Fathers in a special ‘Thanksgiving’ holiday.
Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.
The Pilgrim Fathers took many risks to find a new home where they would have religious freedom. In 1620 one hundred Puritans boarded the ‘Mayflower’ headed for the ‘New World’. The Pilgrim Fathers viewed England as un-Godly place and moving from a bad to worse state. They believed that a new start in the New World was their only chance.

3. Receive The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive
Our reading from Ephesians reminds us that Christians are liberated
in Christ. The Pilgrim Fathers travelled to America in search of
religious freedom to be Christian Puritans.
The Spirit is the guarantee
that we shall receive
what God has promised his people,
and this assures us that
God will give complete freedom
to those who are his.
Let us praise his glory!
Ephesians 1: 14
Why is freedom so important?
How can we feel that we are not free?
The reading is a lectionary reading

4. Engage
Watch the story of Thanksgiving—a story of risk and adventure:
Discuss….
Why do Americans remember to celebrate Thanksgiving today?
Was America a new country?
What about the indigenous people?
What do you need to remember to say thank you for?
Do you know who Pocahontas was?
The Pilgrim Fathers and Harvard, America’s oldest university
Harvard was founded shortly after the ‘Pilgrims’ from England, sailing on the boat The Mayflower, arrived at Plymouth Rock in Just outside Harvard there is a commemorative inscription that reads:
‘After God carried us safe to New England … one of the … things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning.’
The Plymouth Colony founded by those men and women would become the United States of America.
Learning was held to be a key requirement for their development and growth.
Information about the Pilgrim Fathers adapted from BBC learning
The pilgrims had asked the King to allow them to form their own church. The King denied the pilgrim's request. The Pilgrims decided to move to Holland where religious freedom was practiced, and where they would be allowed to worship God as they saw fit. They lived in Holland until 1620, when they became dissatisfied with their situation and the effects that living in Holland was having on their children. In 1620, the Pilgrims moved back to England and prepared to leave for the New World. The Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America. They sailed on a ship named the Mayflower. On December 11, 1620, the first Pilgrims (or Puritans, as they were first known) landed at Plymouth Rock. The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to get the land ready for planting. By the fall of 1621, only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived. The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to prepare a thanksgiving feast. The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, had organized the first Thanksgiving feast in the year 1621, in Massachusetts. The first Thanksgiving feast was held in the presence of around ninety Wampanoag Indians and the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, was also invited. The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. The drink that the Puritans brought with them on the Mayflower was beer.

5. Respond We are thankful. in what we say, and what we do Amen
In the USA remembering the Pilgrim Fathers is a day of Thanksgiving
—it is about remembering identity and being thankful.
In our prayer today we also remember that we are a community who says
thank you for who we are and what we have.
For ourselves and all that we have to offer:
We are thankful.
For families and friends and all who love us:
For Bishop Justus our school community:
For the beauty of nature and the world around us:
May we show our thanks,
in what we say,
and what we do
Amen

6. Go
Let us bless the Lord
Thanks be to God