There's nothing new about the idea behind Tamaqua's first Community Advent Breakfast scheduled for Dec. 3. People in Bethlehem, Pa., have celebrated the beginning of Advent with a community breakfast for 46 years. But one of the three organizations sponsoring the local community event is a new idea, at least to Tamaqua.
The Tamaqua Area Fellowship Network is a newly formed group of lay leaders from the 14 churches comprising the Tamaqua Area Ministerial Association. The Ministerial Association and Tamaqua Chamber of Commerce are co-sponsors of the breakfast.
"Advent is a season of hope and expectation," says George Taylor, one of the members of the Fellowship Network. "A community breakfast celebrating Advent is the perfect way to welcome in the Christmas season and to promote the idea of cooperation among churches as well as other faith-based organizations in our community."
Taylor edits a weekly newspaper, the Bethlehem Press, which has both covered and sponsored the Lehigh Valley event.
"The Advent breakfast is really a wonderful gathering of the civic and spiritual community," Taylor explains," and I hope it becomes an annual event here."
Zion Lutheran Church is hosting the first Tamaqua Advent breakfast, but the event can move from church to church each year. The Salvation Army has expressed an interest in hosting a 2012 Advent breakfast.
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