So for those of you who are not familiar with Bethlehem, you might be wondering what In-gathering Sunday is. Well I was too. I had heard about In-gathering Sunday when I first arrived at Bethlehem and while it was described to me a few times I was still confused at exactly what it was. Basically in a nutshell, it is the Sunday when everyone brings in food that is then donated to the food pantry for Redding Social Services. It is normally a few weeks before Thanksgiving but also during the Stewardship campaign for the next year so hopefully people make the connection that stewardship is about all of our resources which go to help others, not just money that goes to the church.
The altar is COVERED in produce and during the offering many people bring forward the bags and bags of food that are collected.
So unfortunately I don't have pictures of this year's altar yet. But here are two pictures from a previous year.
Standing at the altar amid all that food was spectacular! It also really added to all the illusions of communion being a feast.
What a visual joy!
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