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St. Bartholomew's Church Dinner Pairs Haves, Have-Nots At Same Table

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - Some well-off New York City residents have paid $100 each for the honor of eating a candlelit holiday dinner with homeless people at a church.

The Rev. Edward Sunderland says he hopes Friday's unusual mealtime coupling of haves and have-nots at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan will become a trend across America.

About 500 people dined at large round tables beneath the church's high ceiling. Chefs from The New York Palace and The Waldorf-Astoria hotels provided roasted turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, red velvet cake, pumpkin cheesecake and other delights. A piano played softly in the background.

"It was magical. All of our soup kitchen regulars came up to me and said how thrilled they were to have more than just a quick turkey dinner," Edward Sunderland said, associate rector at St. Bartholomew's.

Sunderland says the dinner is a chance for people to get to know each other in a safe place and for donors to see who benefits from their charitable instincts.

"In ordinary circumstances, people who are not hungry or homeless, don't know how to interact with other people but if you put a really stunning meal in front of people, in a beaiutful; sapce, you give something in common," he told WCBS 880.

Sunderland said it was the first time they invited people beyond the soup kitchen.

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