MAHANOY CITY - The 20th annual Thanksgiving Breakfast was held Tuesday at St. Mary's Center in Mahanoy City, bringing together clergy from local churches and community members for prayer and song in order to thank God for His blessings.
The Mahanoy Area Ministerial Association sponsors the breakfast each year and it has become a holiday tradition in the borough.
John and Margaret Mellon, Frackville, are regulars to the breakfasts and, despite some snowy weather, they were faithful in attending.
"We've been coming since the first one," John Mellon said. "This is the 20th time and my wife and I have never missed. It's very inspirational religiously, and it is special to see the community get together from the ministerial aspect. We are very impressed about what happens here to bring Christianity to fruitful happiness."
The Rev. James Carroll, OFM, pastor of St. Mary Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church in Mahanoy City, welcomed everyone.
"On behalf of the ministerium, I'd like to welcome everyone to St. Mary's. We've been doing this breakfast for 20 years, so we've been gathering as a people of faith from the Mahanoy Area to give thanks, to remember the reality of thankfulness and gratitude in our hearts," Carroll said. "So we gather to share this time and this place with one another."
After his remarks, he called on everyone to sing "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come," led by Park Place resident Kathleen Wufsus on guitar, who was followed by the invocation by Carroll.
"Gracious God, we thank you for bringing us here this morning. We thank you for the gift of life. We ask you to send your blessing and spirit, and to continue to guide, to watch and to protect," Carroll said. "Remember all those who are not with us this morning for various reasons. We ask you to bless ourselves and to bless this food that we are about to receive, for it is all to your honor and your glory, now and forever."
The Old Testament reading from the prophet Joel was presented by the Rev. F. Leon Morgan, supply pastor at First Presbyterian Church, who was followed by the Rev. Christopher Wollyung, pastor of First United Methodist Church, who read the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians. The Gospel according to St. Matthew was read by the Rev. Fred Crawford, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church. Pastor Bob Adams of First Congregational Church presented the Doxology, Psalm of Thanksgiving, The Lord Prayer and the Communal Table Prayer. He and Wufsus led everyone in the singing of "Eidelweiss."
The Rev. Monsignor William F. Glosser, pastor of St. Clare of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, Saint Clair, was the guest speaker. He had served in the borough as pastor of the former St. Canicus Church and spoke of his love for Mahanoy City.
"I am very proud to say that so many people still come up to me and ask, 'So what was it like to grow up in Mahanoy City?' " he said. "And I say that I didn't grow up in Mahanoy City. I grew up in Pottsville. 'But you always talk so much about Mahanoy City. We always thought you were a Mahanoy City boy' they would tell me. Well, there is a lot of Mahanoy City in me, and it broke my heart to leave in 1989 and it hurt a heck of a lot more in 2008."
Glosser was referring to the year when many of the parish consolidations took place in the Diocese of Allentown.
"This ministerium has always been a very big part of my life," he said. "It's been a very special thing for me because the folks you have today, the folks that I've worked with in the past, taught me so much that, yes, our individual doctrines and theologies are important, and if we are people of faith, we are going to defend the doctrines and tenets of our faith. But in the end, all of us are united under the Cross of Jesus Christ and we do not need anything else."