Thanksgiving Past

Since our family Thanksgiving feast will be taking place tomorrow instead of today we decided that it would be fun to get out and do something today. Dave's parents were still making today their travel day so we decided to meet them at Old Sturbridge Village. We've never been to the Village on Thanksgiving before and while we were bummed that their Thanksgiving meal was sold out (probably many weeks before we knew that we'd be holding our feast the day after) on a gorgeous day like this there was still plenty of things to do there.  

One of the things that we thought would be neat to attend was the minister giving a Thanksgiving sermon. It just seemed like something that had to be experienced while we were there. We found our pew, enjoyed the organ music that was being played and then the minister appeared. He shared with us a brief history of Protestants in New England (much of which was familiar to me having grown up in New England as a Congregationalist) and then he said that he would be sharing with us a portion of a sermon that had been given back in the late 1800s.  

He explained that these sermons were usually an hour in length but he would only be speaking for a brief period of time. Before he made his way to the pulpit he said that the sermon he would be reading was one that had been given by the Reverend Fosdick Harrison of Bethany Connecticut!  As you can imagine my jaw hit the ground, and as I turned to look down the pew at Dave and his parents Dave and his parents (and the girls) turned and looked at me (with much the same look of surprise on their faces that I had on mine).  Of all places to hear a sermon from my sweet, little hometown's past was being shared with everyone in that church this afternoon. What are the odds?!  I sat there Instagraming (how could I not?) and soaking in the words that had been spoken on this very day a couple of centuries before.  It was truly a moment that I will never forget and made this rather unusal Thanksgiving Day of ours that much more special.  

And yes, for those wondering when we got home I did Google the Reverend Fodsick Harrison and it turns out that he was in fact a minister of the First Church of Christ Congregational (UCC) which happens to be my home town church!