Community Gathering for Gratitude & Thanksgiving

Six congregations, one service: the houses of worship of Longboat Key and St. Armands gather at Temple Beth Israel for the island's 46th annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, an observance whose hosting rotates among them and which the Temple's founding rabbi, Albert Shulman, helped conceive in the congregation's earliest years. All Angels by the Sea Episcopal, Christ Church of Longboat Key, Longboat Island Chapel, St. Armands Key Lutheran, St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic and the Temple each take part in the readings and prayers, and in recent years a choir drawn from all of them has sung. The clergy, who now meet monthly among themselves, ask for nonperishable food donations for a local food bank, and refreshments have customarily followed.