by Pastor Mark

This Sunday evening there are two special worship services. Each is very important, and I am sorry that they are at the same time. At CCH we are hosting a service for the Transgender Day of Remembrance and the annual Huntington community Thanksgiving service will be at the United Methodist Church, 180 West Neck Road. Both begin at 7:00

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is set aside to memorialize those who are killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the Remembering Our Dead web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in early 1999. Due to the interest in both the web site and that original vigil, it was decided that an annual memorial to those killed due to anti-transgender violence or prejudice was necessary to help spread information about these deaths. This year we will be remembering over ninety individuals who have been murdered in the past year due to anti-transgender hate.

The Thanksgiving service is a long-standing Huntington tradition that includes participants from many of the faith groups in Huntington. In the past few years it has become broadly multi-faith with participants from Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and other religions on Long island.

The two services are so different in focus I do not even have a pithy connection to make between the two. They are both important, and the fact that we support each shows the breadth and length of our mission and our congregation’s reach.

I am thankful for this church.