Coming up next week, Thursday, Nov. 21, Holy Trinity Episcopal of Vicksburg will hold its annual Turkey Dinner Classic at the church, located at 900 South St., from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The hearty meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, gravy, cranberry salad, green beans, rolls and cheesecake for dessert will be available for dine-in or take-out at the church. Tickets are $15 per meal and can be purchased at the church office, which can be reached by phone at 601-636-0542, Peterson’s, located at 1400 Washington St., or online at churchoftheholytrinity.org. Advance ticket purchases are encouraged, but tickets may be purchased at the door.

Logan Peay, along with husband Jim Peay, has organized the dinner for eleven years.

“We keep the menu the same each year,” Logan said. “People look forward to seeing their favorites. A lot of people really like the cranberry salad.”

The church relies on member volunteers each year to prepare the food, serve meals and wash dishes, Peay said.

“Everyone really comes together to make the dinner a success,” she said.

Most of the food served is prepared on-site by church members.

According to church history from “The Trinity Cookbook,” published by the church in 2017, Holy Trinity was built during Reconstruction following the Civil War. Although the church was established in 1869 in Vicksburg, construction took years, and the first service in the current church building was held on March 28, 1880.

Holy Trinity is well known throughout the state of Mississippi for its beautiful stained-glass windows, six of which were designed by Tiffany Studios in New York. The church recently completed a multi-year refurbishment to preserve the windows.

Also of note are the unique Reconciliation Memorial windows, found in the west wall of the church. The windows feature the flags of both the lost Confederacy and the United States, along with doves and crosses. They serve as a testimony of healing for the nation and were implemented by the first rector of Holy Trinity, the Rev. William Wilberforce Lord, D. D.

The Turkey Dinner not only serves as a kick-off for the holiday season, it is also an outreach to serve First Responders.

“For the past three-to-four years, we have fed the Vicksburg Police Department and the Central Fire Department (at the Turkey Dinner) that day, and we have always given any remaining food to River City Rescue Mission,” Peay said.

“I also enjoy seeing people that I don’t get to see too often,” Peay said. “I really love that the teachers and kids from Jacob’s Ladder come to eat in. An anonymous donor buys tickets for them. It’s really heart-warming that someone would do that and makes me more aware of how much of a difference in the world you can make by doing kind things.”

She said all proceeds from the dinner will be used to benefit church outreach missions.

Take-out meals may be picked up at the curb by car, with the line beginning on Monroe St. and onto South St. Temporary parking across the street in the Crawford Street United Methodist Church parking lot may also be utilized for picking up take-out meals. For those wishing to dine in, parking in the gravel parking lot on Monroe Street, across from the church and behind Cadence Bank, is available.