Last week I suggested that we can promote an attitude of gratitude by writing a letter to God about what we are thankful for. Here is my letter:

This thanksgiving I am most thankful for our family. Kathleen and I have been married for 37 years and are still in love, still planning on spending a lifetime together. We share values, and are thoroughly in love with our daughter, Sabrena, her husband, Arthie, and our granddaughter, Hannah Marie. They were here for Thanksgiving and it was so good to see all of them, but particularly to spend time with Hannah. She is a beautiful child, good disposition, and more and more sociable, vocalizing and calling attention to herself.

On Sunday the kids met with our Church session and the session approved Hannah’s Baptism. It was 25 years ago we brought Sabrena to Baptism and accepted God’s claim on her life. She has been away from the Church for most of the past ten years, but now she and Arthie have found the Presbyterian Church in Cherry Hill, NJ, joined the Church and are attending every Sunday. For all of this we are most grateful to God.

Yesterday should have been a great day of celebration at First Presbyterian Church, and in many ways it was, but it was difficult to completely enjoy the celebration when the Veterans Day Parade assembling outside our doors made it so difficult for members to park. The Bushnell had an event at 12:30 and at 9 AM had already set guards over the entrances to parking lots where our members usually park. People trying to approach the Church coming east on Capitol Ave. near to 10:30 found the street barricaded at Trinity and were diverted down Trinity Street. We could not linger over the silver tea reception for Founder's Day since street closings at 12:30 PM threatened to trap those late leaving until the parade ended at 4 PM or later. Simultaneous with my standing up to deliver the morning sermon a fife and drum unit began playing right outside of the Sanctuary on Clinton Street.

None of this is to disrespect the Veterans Day parade, it is a wonderful event honoring all our service men and women who have served this nation with honor, dedication and courage. The problem is with the planning. A few years ago it was moved from Saturday to Sunday to accommodate the Jewish War Veterans who could not march in the parade without violating their Sabbath rest. It was a wonderful gesture of respect; the only problem has been that respect for this one group has failed to respect the fact that most Christians worship on Sunday and seven Churches are either on the parade route or within a block of the parade route. When the change was first made we begged the planners to start later than 1 PM to allow our people the opportunity to come and leave in peace before the parade begins. The only accommodation that was made for our needs was to have the parade assemble on Buckingham street instead of on Capitol Ave. We were promised that the police would accommodate our members coming and going, but this has not been the case. We have no idea how many people decided not to attend Founders Day worship because of the difficulty of parking, or even who came and went home because they could not find a place to park. My wife said that she would have turned around and gone home when she encountered the obstacles except that I had asked her to bring some candles I needed for the service and had left at home.

We believe that Veterans Day should be celebrated on Veterans Day, the parade should step off on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year at the 11 o'clock hour. All of the state, Federal and City employees are off for the day, along with huge numbers of people working for non-governmental businesses. The state parking areas would be empty and available for assembly and to accommodate the thousands of spectators the parade draws.

It still was a joy to celebrate 155 years of service here in the City of Hartford. We recognized one addition to the list of members who have been part of the Church for over fifty years, Maude Morrison who joined the congregation on May 27, 1956. We have 13 members total who have been part of the Church 50 years or longer, six of them were here in person. The most senior of the group is John Brash who joined in 1937. We believe that John represents the third generation of his family who have been a part of First Presbyterian Church.

We also remembered three members who have died in the past year, two of whom were fifty year plus members, Robert Davidson who joined the Church in 1936 and Evelyn Parkins who joined in 1928. We are saddened by their passing, but rejoice that they have joined the great company of the members of the Church Triumphant who sing eternal praise to the one who is king of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ our Lord.