MORAVIA - St. Matthew's Episcopal Church on Saturday was bustling with chatter and full of friends and neighbors who gathered to support a good cause.

The annual St. Matthew's Fall Festival has been going on for more than 30 years, said Pat Kinney, who has been organizing the event since 1979.

The purpose is to have a church bazaar that draws together the talents of people who attend the church as well as area crafters.

“This church particularly is considered a community treasure and to be open and giving tours for anyone who's interested, brings people to this national treasure,” she said.

“The money that's raised goes right back out into our community.”

On average, the fall festival raises $2,500 to $3,000. St. Matthew's uses the money to give Christmas baskets to residents of Northwoods Nursing Home in Moravia as well as throughout the year to help families who may need some help, she said.

Kinney's favorite part about the festival, she said, is the sense of shared generosity and “the feeling of everyone working together.”

“The thing that I think is really important about this bazaar, is that ... it serves as a unifying event,” Kinney said.

The fall festival features a luncheon, a craft fair, baked goods for sale, a garage sale room, a raffle and tours of the chapel.

Sisters Ruth Holloway-Lamphere and Sandra Eldred used to come to the fall festival with their mom, who passed away last January.

They have been coming for at least 15 years, they said.

“We're just keeping up with the tradition,” Holloway-Lamphere, of Moravia, said.

Eldred, of Groton, and Holloway-Lamphere also met their third sister, who is from Sempronius, at the festival.

Their favorite part is the variety of soups, the garage sale room and the people they see every year.

Vicky Hill, of Cortland, attended the festival this year for the second time. She was invited last year and she enjoyed herself, she said.

“The church is beautiful. The luncheon is wonderful, and the people are so friendly,” she said.

Gordon Bennett came to learn about the carvings in the chapel, he said.

His aunt has a carved box that was given to her husband by Charles Hall, which is what spurred his interest in coming to the church, he said. Hall carved many of the carvings in the chapel.

“I'm just amazed that so much of this could be done without modern tools,” Bennett, of Waterloo, said.

“The historical part of this is what brought me in ... It brings the background with the Judeo-Christian ethics in with their beliefs. It shows us where it came from. And you can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been.”

Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net