East Cobb Ecumenical Service Slated for Nov. 21

Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb will hold its 9th annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Celebration on Thursday, Nov. 21.

The service begins at 7 p.m. at the synagogue, located at 1415 Old Canton Road. Visitors are asked to bring canned goods to assist MUST Ministries Ministries and a collection plate will be passed for Give a Gobble, an annual effort by the Women of Reform Judaism that provides Thanksgiving turkeys for needy families in Atlanta.

A dessert reception will follow the service.

Kol Emeth Rabbi Steven Lebow started the service to foster understanding of faith communities in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The program includes worship traditions, readings and song from eight faiths. This year's service includes:

• Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Baitul Baqi)
• East Cobb United Methodist Church
• Eastminster Presbyterian Church
• Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation
• Interfaith Community Initiatives
• Islamic Center of Marietta
• Islamic Speakers Bureau
• Masjid Al-Muminun
• North River Church of Christ
• Roswell Community Masjid
• Sikh Educational Welfare Association
• St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church
• Temple Kol Emeth
• Transfiguration Catholic Church
• Unity North Atlanta Church
• Vedanta Center of Atlanta

Here's more information from Bob Bonstein of East Cobb UMC: 

This year’s service will be emceed by Rabbi Steve Lebow and Imam Amjad Taufique with special insights from Monsignor Patrick Bishop of Transfiguration Catholic Church. Speakers and presenters on the celebration will represent Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Unitarian Universalism, and three branches of Christianity. 

“The Thanksgiving Ecumenical Celebration has become an annual touchstone for people who would rather understand and relate to their neighbors of different faiths, instead of having those people and their faiths represented by stereotypes and sound bites,” according to Thanksgiving Ecumenical Celebration committee chair Hal Schlenger. 

“And the proof is in the messages that people write during the food reception at the end of the program.”

For more information on the service, visit its Facebook page.