Macon faith community hosts Thanksgiving service, collections donations for nonprofit

St. Joseph Catholic Church, Mulberry Street United Methodist and Temple Beth Israel hosted an Interfaith Thanksgiving Service at Rosa Parks Square Sunday to bring members of Macon’s faith community together and raise money for a local food and clothing ministry.

The service featured a canned food drive to support Loaves & Fishes, along with traditional hymns, a short sermon and some refreshments.

“Every year, we do some type of an outreach or service to some form of ministry that gives to the poor,” said Father Scott Winchel, the priest at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. “It usually rotates, so this year we decided on Loaves & Fishes.”

The attendees of the service, who Winchel said come from more than just the three houses of worship that coordinated the service, were encouraged to bring canned food items to be donated by the churches.

“It gives us an opportunity to give back, especially to those who are less fortunate,” Winchel said. “We’re very thankful that Loaves & Fishes gives us the bins and makes it simple for us to donate. All of us are very thankful for what we have.”

The donations echoed the sermon given by Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel on why people should be grateful, even during a pandemic.

“We can be grateful that it’s not 1918 and that we have Zoom to connect us,” Bahar said. “We can be grateful that we can talk to each other about complicated topics and just be happy that we can be in each others’ presence.”

The canned food donations, along with Bahar’s sermon about Thanksgiving, keeps a tradition alive that the three congregations have had for a long while.

“For some years it’s been a tradition for us to gather during the week before Thanksgiving and have a prayer service,” Winchel said. “In 2019 it was at Temple Beth Israel, and it would have been at St. Joseph’s in 2020 if it hadn’t been for COVID-19.”

The service is usually held in one of the three buildings, rotating each year. Winchel said the decision to move to Rosa Parks Square in downtown Macon was a result of keeping the tradition going in a safe way during the pandemic.

“We decided we’d like to have something this year, so we decided to have it here at the park,” Winchel said. “Then we had to have it on Sunday, since we were going to do it outside it couldn’t be at night. Sunday gave us the chance to look at our schedules and coordinate it.”

The outdoor service drew a group and even halted the reggae music that typically echoes down Poplar Street on Sunday afternoons. Bahar reminded the audience of what it meant to be having such a service during a pandemic.

“We can think about how we have all survived some of these painful experiences collectively and be grateful for that,” Bahar said. “We can go through conversations about bereavement and be grateful that there are others who have walked the path next to us.”

The service lasted around 45 minutes and featured donuts and coffee for those attending.

Micah Johnston is a Mercer University student who is working with the Telegraph this semester.

This story was originally published November 24, 2021 at 12:00 AM.