The Community Thanksgiving Service is a time like no other in Columbiana. Our community comes together and worships under one roof to give thanks to God for all the blessings in our lives. Denominations blur, color of skin is blinded and family discord is put away.

Love covers all.

Three churches rotate as host for the service held the Sunday before Thanksgiving: Columbiana United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church of Columbiana and the Columbiana Church of the Nazarene.

Other churches in the community participate in the service, such as the Macedonia Baptist Church, but all churches are welcome.

This year’s service will be Sunday, Nov. 21, at 6:30 p.m. at the Methodist church. The Traditional Worship Committee recently met to organize the service.

Long time members Jackie Cates, Beth Hedrick and Carolyn Sockwell met with CUMC’s new ministers the Rev. Nicholas Patterson, director of worship arts and program ministries, and William Murray, director of student ministries, to plan the service.

One of the special traditions of this service actually occurs after it is over. Pastor Mike Miller of First Baptist calls this tradition the “Taste of Heaven.”

At the end of the service, the congregation meets in the Fellowship Hall of the host church, shares each other’s company and enjoys a scrumptious pie feast. The Community Thanksgiving Service is known for the fellowship of the believers, but also for this “Taste of Heaven!” Every pie you can imagine will be served, all homemade by loving hands, to be enjoyed by all who come.

The Methodist Church is also asking the community to bring fresh fruits and vegetables, canned goods and non-perishable boxed items, which will be divided among the residents of Shelby Woods Retirement Community.

Just drop off your goods by noon at the church to help give a Thanksgiving dinner to those in need.

Our country this year has experienced much political division, financial uncertainty and continued war.

The Community Thanksgiving Service is a time to reflect and thank God for the many blessings that we do have.

A heart of gratitude will turn life’s bitter hurts into lessons to be learned, a stranger into a friend, a house into a home, and a simple meal into a feast.

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude for all the circumstances of our lives and to experience its transforming power.

Phoebe Donald Robinson can be reached by e–mail at phoeberobinson@bellsouth.net.