Franklin Interfaith Council Thanksgiving Service Sunday, November 16

By Judith Dorato O’Gara

The annual Franklin Interfaith Council Thanksgiving Service will take place on Sunday, November 16, 2025, from 7-8 p.m., this year at the Franklin United Methodist Church, 82 W. Central St. Franklin. This year, the service will be led by Rabbi Rachel Putterman, as Rev. Doreen Oughton, of Franklin Federated Church, explains, “We rotate not only the location, but who gives the message” each year. At the service, the Council will be taking offerings to support its fuel/heating assistance fund for community members in need.

Calling its primary purpose “the betterment of the community it serves,” the Council aims to use its “power of faith as defined by our individual spiritual traditions” unite as well as challenge citizens in Franklin to address issues of social injustice, celebrate diversity and promote tolerance and understanding. 

Members of the Franklin Interfaith Council include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Temple Etz Chaim, St. Mary’s Parish, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Franklin United Methodist Church, Franklin Federated Church, First Universalist Society in Franklin, and recently joined, New England Chapel.

“We are united in love and service to our fellow human beings, though it might look different for each of us, we respect the dignity of each human being,” says Mary Diehl, who has been involved with the Franklin Interfaith Council for about 12 years. She’s now the Interfaith Choir Director and is in her second year as Interfaith President. 

Diehl explains that Interfaith members are “ politically neutral … but overwhelmingly, we are saddened by the divisive discourse, the objectifying, I would say, of different groups instead of just getting down to person-to-person interaction. I can’t speak for whole council on this, but overwhelmingly, it’s ‘let’s talk instead of fight.’”

Showing up for each other is important. The Council responded to a number of incidents last year, including an arson fire at St. Mary’s and vandalism at Temple Etz Chaim. 

A member of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Diehl explains how touched she was to receive the love and support of folks from other houses of faith, when, just 12 hours after her church’s prophet President Russell M. Nelson passed, a devastating shooting took place against members of her church in Michigan. Diehl feels the compassion she received is the Interfaith Council’s “our real strength  … I had so many of them reach out and just offer their support and love and condolence, and that was huge to me.” She says she heard the same sentiment from the rabbi in the Council. “It’s just so wonderful to know we’re not alone, because we often feel we are,” says Diehl.

Last month, the Interfaith Council came together with Rep. Jeff Roy to support an antisemitism discussion at Franklin High School, says Diehl, something that arose in response to vandalism at Temple Etz Chaim. “All of the people who showed up at the vigil wanted to do something more,” she says.

“We stand with those who are grieving,” says Rev. Oughton, “and we seek to offer comfort and appreciation and a sense of unity. The Thanksgiving Service is just about that. It’s so important to experience gratitude and to recognize what we have received.”

The houses of faith that comprise the Franklin Interfaith Council get together to support other initiatives in town, including several for the Franklin Food Pantry, a Martin Luther King, Jr. service day in January, in which members created placemats and cards for recipients of Meals on Wheels, and gathering diapers and wipes for Foster Care Essentials. When migrant families housed at local hotels departed, Interfaith members collected donations of various household products for about 65 “home starter kits” for them. They’ve used donations received at their Voices of Faith concert in May to help increase threshold for the Franklin Food Pantry’s SNAP match at the Franklin Farmers Market.

From the beginning, Rev. Oughton was impressed by the warm welcome of the Franklin Interfaith Council. “It’s just such a diverse group of lay representatives and clergy …  a group of people that understand faith differently in some ways, but with such a respect and appreciation for each other and a real focus on the common good of this community – not buying into the idea that just because we have different beliefs we have to be against each other,” she says.