{"id":47719,"date":"2015-12-12T01:22:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T01:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owegopennysaver.com\/?p=47719"},"modified":"2015-12-14T01:25:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T01:25:12","slug":"commonground-hosts-annual-common-family-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2015\/12\/12\/commonground-hosts-annual-common-family-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"CommonGround hosts annual \u2018common family\u2019 Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CommonGround<\/a>

Guests gather for a \u2018common family\u2019 Thanksgiving at CommonGround Christian Community Center.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the great joys of the holiday season is gathering with family to share special meals, celebrations, stories and good times. But for many singles and couples without family nearby, with no way to visit far-off relatives, sometimes without a way even to get to local community events, these can be days when emptiness and absence is most keenly felt. So CommonGround Christian Community Center volunteers and CommonGround\u2019s partner churches once again worked together to offer these friends and neighbors a \u201cCommon Family Thanksgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we learned last year,\u201d CommonGround Pastoral Coordinator Robert Henrich said,\u00a0 \u201cit isn\u2019t easy to find these friends in the shadows.\u201d Because they have few connections in the community they don\u2019t readily come to mind. They are invisible on the streets. They receive little notice, so they can wind up living too much of their lives quietly behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet they are as fully members of the human family as anyone else, no less deserving of our respect, of our time and of our friendship,\u201d Henrich emphasized. \u201cWe only found fifteen people to invite last year, of which ten attended, so this year we really hit the streets. We wound up inviting thirty-seven people, of which twenty-two accepted, eighteen came, and three meals were delivered. Next year we\u2019re hoping to connect with even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

At approximately 2 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 27, 18 guests arrived at CommonGround, some via volunteer-provided transportation. There they joined with 16 volunteers to share a family-style Thanksgiving dinner. This \u2018common family\u2019 chatted, laughed, shared stories, sang Christmas Carols and enjoyed a true family celebration.<\/p>\n

Henrich stressed that \u201cIt takes a lot to make something like this happen,\u201d noting more than 30 volunteers were involved at various stages. In addition, seven area churches also played key roles: the meal was cooked at First Baptist Church of Owego; tables and logistics support were provided by Owego Church of the Nazarene; chairs had been donated by Sword and The Spirit Christian Fellowship; stuffing, fruits and fall produce, as well as the dishes cleanup crew, was from St. Paul\u2019s Episcopal Church; First Presbyterian Church contributed desserts and a table host; other table hosts and a transportation volunteer came from Zion Lutheran Church; volunteers from Most Holy Rosary Church in Maine also covered transportation needs and cooked desserts.<\/p>\n

The event was funded by, and volunteer support was received through a Thrivent Action Team Grant. The Action Team program is a community service provided Thrivent Financial through its members. Thrivent Financial is a Christian, nonprofit financial services organization that has been helping Christians build solid financial futures and strengthen their communities for more than one hundred years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what CommonGround is all about,\u201d Henrich observed. \u201cWe\u2019re here to help churches and community to come together, to do together what we can\u2019t do apart; to help build healthier relationships and a stronger, healthier community \u2013 one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great joys of the holiday season is gathering with family to share special meals, celebrations, stories and good times. But for many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCommonGround hosts annual \u2018common family\u2019 Thanksgiving - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2015\/12\/12\/commonground-hosts-annual-common-family-thanksgiving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CommonGround hosts annual \u2018common family\u2019 Thanksgiving - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the great joys of the holiday season is gathering with family to share special meals, celebrations, stories and good times. 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