ELDRED, NY — A new community gathering initiative, called The Crowded Table, has received permission to use Highland’s municipal buildings for a trial period. 

Abbie Watts, one of the initiative’s founders, came to the Highland Town Board meeting on Tuesday, November 11 to explain what it was and what it aimed to do. 

“We wanted to create a space that we could have gathering and have intentional conversations and share food and music and things like that, just in a space together,” said Watts. 

Watts said she and a friend, Mike O’Brien, associate director of Camp Koinonia, “have been talking for a while now about getting together what we’re calling a non-religious intentional gathering.”

The gatherings would not exclude people who were religious; however, they would aim to replicate some of the community-building effects of church meetings in a non-religious context. 

“We see the spirit of community that happens in churches. Because we’re personally not religious, it’s hard to go to a church and feel connected to the talk about God and other pieces of religion,” said Watts. 

“Again,” Watts added, “nothing against any of it, just, that’s not personally how we connect with this—but we want those conversations to happen.”

The meetings would each have a theme for discussions, said Watts. For instance, the first month’s theme would be community, with such elements as songs about community, a poem read about what community means to an individual and social reflection time among members at the gathering, ending with food and spending time together. 

“It’s really just to bring people together,” said Watts. 

Organizers envisioned the meetings to occur monthly, with a tentative time of Saturdays at 2 p.m. They hope to move the gatherings to various spots around Highland, including outdoor spaces in the summer, but asked the town for permission to use the town’s senior center during the colder months. 

Town supervisor John Pizzolato said the gatherings should be able to slot into the senior center’s calendar of events, and suggested that they could use the town hall in case of a conflict. 

“I love this idea,” said Pizzolato. “It’s exactly why we redid the [senior center’s] kitchen, why we put this thing together, is to bring people together, to eat, to celebrate the community and the connectivity.”

The board approved the use of the space for a trial period, with the matter to be revisited at its April meeting.