Giving Thanks, Telling the Truth: A Thanksgiving Reflection Rooted in Justice

As the season turns and the trees outside my window give themselves back to the soil, I find myself reflecting on what I’m most grateful for. At the top of that list is you — this ecumenical community committed to protecting, restoring, and rightly sharing God’s creation.

Thanksgiving is a complicated day. It carries both the language of gratitude and the legacy of harm. It’s a holiday that invites us to give thanks even as it sits atop a history of violence and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples and lands.

In a world of wounds, gratitude and truth-telling belong together

This year, I’m holding both.

I’m grateful for you — for the congregations learning to love their watersheds again, for the pastors preaching courage in a climate-changed world, for the advocates who refuse to look away. And I’m committed, with you, to the ongoing work of repair: listening to Indigenous neighbors, facing the truth of our history, and tending the land and waters that sustain us.ot your gratitude in place:

As you gather around your table, I invite you to take a moment to 
root your gratitude in place:

Learn the land and watershed where you gather.
A simple practice of orienting ourselves to place — and to the peoples who have stewarded it since long before this country existed. Use our Faithful Resilience StoryMap to help identify your watershed and the Indigenous communities historically and currently connected to your area.

Offer a word of acknowledgment and commitment.
Not as a performative gesture, but as a small act of truth-telling: a reminder that gratitude requires responsibility. Hear Vance Blackfox’s reflections on Land Acknowledgement as a first step, and find his example as a starting place. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also offers a Land Acknowledgement Guide for those who are looking for references on how to do so within their church.

Consider a gift of repair.
Contribute to a settler land tax (or back rent). Consider including this as part of your Thanksgiving offering. Voluntary reparations funds support Indigenous groups who have experienced land dispossession and genocide. Explore the Shuumi Land Tax and the Wiyot Honor Tax as examples.

​Wherever you find yourself this week — around crowded tables or in quiet, wild places — may you sense the mercy that holds us all. May your gratitude deepen your courage and commitment to justice, especially for our Indigenous siblings. And may the God who dwells in river and soil, in forest and feast, draw you into the sacred work of healing the world.
 
I am deeply thankful to do this work alongside you.

Avery Davis Lamb 
Executive Director 
Creation Justice Ministries

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