Gratitude for all you are & do

“Even with our differences, there is a place we're all connected,
Each of us can find each other's light.
So for tonight we pray for what we know can be
And on this day we hope for what we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change, and even though we all can still do more,
There's so much to be thankful for.”

–Thankful, Josh Groban
Looking back at 2023, we want to thank you for all the wonderful contributions you have made to the Room for All community. There really is so much to be thankful for: companionship for isolated affirming clergy, tools to graciously engage in hard conversations, and vocal and visible witness of the unconditional love of Christ.


Change is made possible because of people of all different backgrounds coming together. You’ve supported people in your local community and across the denomination, showing that an inclusive, affirming church can exist.


Next week on Giving Tuesday, we invite you to celebrate with us many of the milestones that the Reformed Church in America and Room for All have reached this year. Your giving helps propel us onward to the next, and we are so grateful to have you with us.


** A Note on the Thanksgiving holiday
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Thanksgiving has been celebrated as a harvest festival, on the basis of an exaggerated, fictionalized account designed to diminish the devastating impact colonizers had on Indigenous peoples.


Today, the Mashpee Wampanoag are one of three surviving tribes of the original sixty-nine in the Wampanoag Nation. Here you can read an account of Thanksgiving ([link removed]) from a Wampanoag historian. They don't celebrate one harvest festival, but many throughout the seasons, with formal ceremonies to thank the Great Spirit. Their traditions persist: Cranberry Day ([link removed]) is a holiday celebrated by the Mashpee people on their remaining ancestral land.


On Thanksgiving day, Indigenous people living in Plymouth commemorate a National Day of Mourning. The United American Indians of New England will livestream this event ([link removed]) , and invite all to "join us as we continue to create a true awareness of Native peoples and history. Help shatter the untrue image of the Pilgrims and the unjust system based on racism, settler colonialism, sexism, homophobia and the profit-driven destruction of the Earth that they and other European settlers introduced to these shores.”


It is important we learn the truth, consistently acknowledge Native Peoples of the past and present, debunk stereotypes and myths, and uplift the dynamic, thriving cultures that have shaped and sustained us all.

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