By the weekend before Thanksgiving, retail locations across the country have all but given over their decorations to Christmas. Some offer Hanukkah and other holiday displays. A few even make a gesture toward Thanksgiving with hints of brown, orange, turkeys, and Pilgrims. Trucks filled with Christmas trees were traveling highways, and early Sunday afternoon there were at least two cars in the parking lot of Blue Colony Diner with pine trees strapped to their roofs, presumably headed toward a home to be decorated.

But on Sunday evening, to the notes of Ralph Vaughn Williams’s “Rhosymedre,” nearly 200 people entered the sanctuary of St Rose of Lima Church for an Interfaith Thanksgiving Gathering. Joseph Jacovino, the director of music at the town’s Catholic church, played the organ prelude while families, couples, friends, and individuals filed into the pews for the service that offered prayers of thanks, gratitude, and reflection.

As the second anniversary of 12/14 approaches — indeed, as that day continues to be revisited daily in the hearts and minds of so many in and around Newtown — some of those who spoke on Sunday night also took the opportunity to offer words of comfort and hope in the shadow of that day’s actions.

A 30-voice Interfaith Choir, which had just finished rehearsing with Mr Jacovino, then offered “We Come To Worship” as the choral prelude.

It was the fourth annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service by the Newtown Interfaith Clergy Association. For the past three years the special event has been hosted by Trinity Episcopal Church, but this year’s gathering moved to St Rose.

Monsignor Robert Weiss, pastor of St Rose, reminded those gathered Sunday evening that “God is ever present,” at all times, and offered thanks “to all who came together to share in reflection and thanksgiving.”

Following a moment of silence, in which he encouraged everyone “to center in God’s love,” Msgr Weiss read “Anyway,” a poem attributed to Mother Theresa. There was no formal sermon offered on Sunday. Instead each faith offered a prayer, reading, or reflection on the season.

The service continued with music, readings, and prayers, with representation by many of the town’s faiths. Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel offered a Hebrew reading and song.

“Gratitude,” he said, “is what makes us most human.

“In the Hebrew faith we have blessings for almost anything. The challenge is to not say them by rote,” he continued, then offered a reading in Hebrew of a blessing that is often said in the morning, when showing gratitude for the soul.

There were prayers for the world, the nation, the state, and the town.

The Reverend Leo McIlrath, a Sandy Hook resident who serves as chaplain at The Lutheran Home of Southbury, offered a prayer that included “thanks for the past joys that has made Newtown a great place to grow our children,” before saying he was also “very cognizant tonight of those 20 beautiful children and six adults who were called home almost two years ago.

“Thank you for them, and the assurance that we will see them again,” he added. His prayer for Newtown included thanks for the care shown to so many others, from town officials and educators to volunteers, coaches, and artists, “for the security and safety, food for our tables, shelter from elements, and adequate health care for every individual.”

The Interfaith Choir then sang “At Every Turn,” a two-part choral piece with text by the Reverend Gregory J. Wismar, former pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Newtown, and music by Professor David von Kampen of the University of Kansas. Published in April, the melody of the work, Rev Wismar told The Newtown Bee last month, is rooted in this town. It is, he said, a response to 12/14. The work served as the anthem during the Thanksgiving service.

From voices that carried years of wisdom and guidance to young children just learning to read English, the gathering reached across generations as well as faiths on Sunday. Nail and Rahma Al-Rafaii, two children who could not have been more than 5 years old, each took a turn standing at the pulpit to read from the Baha’i faith.

“Oh God, guide me, protect me,” recited Rahma in her tiny child’s voice, before John Woodall (Baha’i Faith of Newtown) stepped up to join the siblings and offer his own thoughts.

“In the Baha’i community,” he said, “we say the first sign of faith is love. If anything can be said about the last 22 months, it is that there has been a remarkable unfolding of love and service.”

After the anguish, heartbreak, and grief of 12/14, Dr Woodall said, “a sincere yearning” was left. People wanted to do things that meant something, he added.

“The innumerable acts of kindness show us that this yearning has been acted upon,” Dr Woodall said. “The New England way of being self-sufficient, of pulling up your bootstraps and taking care of yourself, has been shaken up here. We are now moving in overlapping circles, and thank God for that.”

Jack Tanner, pastor of Newtown Christian Church, said that most people want an opportunity to express thanks.

“It’s good to have a day for that,” he said. “I think sometimes we take for granted the blessings of God upon us.”

Readings and poetry were also offered on Sunday by Muadh Bhavnagarwala, Nishwa Nawaz, and Muhammad Sakhi, members of The Al Hedaya Islamic Center of Newtown; Deen Kemsley, the leader of the Newtown Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and his son, Sean; and the Reverend Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, pastor of Trinity Episcopal Church, who offered a Thanksgiving Prayer.

The gathering included the lighting of candles within the sanctuary. The Reverend Jack Tanner and Dr Woodall each stood in front of the congregation, and lit a small white candle held by the person standing at the end of the first pew. As Rev Tanner and Dr Woodall proceeded down the center aisle, lighting the candles of those on the end of each pew, those in the pew sent the light out toward the sanctuary’s side walls by lighting each other’s candles.

In a few minutes the sanctuary was filled with dozens of small lit candles.

“We know darkness, and we know the strength of darkness,” Mr Kemsley had said a few minutes earlier. “We choose, as people of faith, the power of light.”

In place of a collection, attendees had been asked to bring with them donations for FAITH Food Pantry. The nonecumenical food pantry based in St John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, FAITH (Food Assistance Immediate Temporary Help) expected to be helping many Newtown families this season.

While The Interfaith Choir led the congregation in singing “All Good Gifts,” attendees were invited to bring their nonperishable donations to be placed in front of the Communion table. Financial donations were also accepted, and collected in a wicker basket.

In stepping to the altar toward the end of the service, the Reverend Matthew Crebbin invited everyone to raise their candle.

“Let us raise high our light in this world,” said the senior pastor of Newtown Congregational Church. After having everyone extinguish their candles, he said, “The light that was here is now your light. Shine forth the thanksgiving and gratitude that God has given us.

“Darkness cannot engulf the power of one flickering light,” he said.

The Reverend Mel Kawakami, senior pastor of Newtown United Methodist Church, reiterated the strength of each candle in his closing blessing.

“Though the candle may be extinguished,” he said, “it remains in our hearts.”