They wore burgundy robes, clerical collars, Indian feathers, yarmulkes or suits. Some spoke Arabic, Hebrew or English with a Catholic Irish lilt. But speakers at Sunday night's Thanksgiving Interfaith Service offered the same message to the nearly 500 people meeting at the Masonic Temple in downtown Salt Lake City: God loves everyone so we should love each other.

The keynote speaker, Yolanda Francisco-Nez, summed up the entire event with three bits of wisdom she learned from her Navajo grandfather: You can create an inclusive environment; be the change you want to see in the world; and separate can never be equal.

Francisco-Nez described her grandfather's efforts to draw a diverse community around him, while maintaining his sacred Indian traditions. She said he uttered a Navajo prayer every morning at dawn, never became bitter when sent away to boarding school where he was forbidden to speak his native language, and was an American hero by becoming a Navajo code-talker during World War II.

This Thanksgiving, she and her family will offer their gratitude to a gentle deity while sitting in her grandfather's humble hogan in Arizona.

"We are a human family," Francisco-Nez said, "united by peace, harmony, balance and gratitude as we strive for equality and inclusivity."

A half dozen other speakers from a variety of faiths, invited by the Inclusion Center for Community and Justice that organized the event, echoed those sentiments.

People of faith must bring down the barriers that divide them, said the Rev. Robin James, a priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Salt Lake City, many of which arise from "our religious orthodoxies."

It is not enough to love "only those who agree with us," she said, "we must recognize the holy in everyone."

LDS Apostle M. Russell Ballard described seeing a tiny mustard seed in the Holy Land and realizing that "if we have faith, nothing that faces us as a country, or as individuals, churches or employees will defeat us."

In Judaism, it is essential to look realistically at all of life's problems and still find a way "to count our blessings -- not just once a year, but on a daily basis," said Rabbi Tracee Rosen of Congregation Kol Ami.

The Rev. Michael Kouremetis of Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church read Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation and reminded the audience to "reach out and embrace each other in this frail world."

Imam Muhammed Mehta, of the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake, pointed out that every faith tradition teaches some form of goodness, charity, kindness and care for the weak and fragile.

Finally, Father Matthew Wixted, a longtime Catholic chaplain at the former Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City, noted that no one escapes this life without some sorrow. "People of all faiths and no faith are on common ground," Wixted said. "We must bear each other's burdens."

Across town in Holladay, nearly 1,000 people squeezed into St. Vincent's Catholic Church for a similar interfaith service.

The first "Thanksgiving" was recorded in the biblical book of Deuteronomy about 1,400 years ago, the Rev. France Davis of Calvary Baptist Church told the combined Catholic, LDS, Protestant, and Jewish audience. "It is not an American holiday. It is a spiritual day … where we must put our arms around those who are suffering or going without and find ways to feed them."