Tens of thousands are expected to flock to San Bernardino County for a five-day religious gathering starting Saturday, Feb. 10, as a Christian church based in Mexico holds its most sacred ceremony in the United States for the first time.

The Light of the World’s convocation, known as the Holy Supper, memorializes the death and salvation of Jesus Christ. It has been taking place in Guadalajara for decades, drawing people from across the world. Church leaders said about 500,000 people attended the gathering last year.

For this year’s celebrations, at Glen Helen Amphitheater in Devore just outside of San Bernardino, organizers expect 100,000 people to attend over the course of the five days.

Ruben Barrera, a spokesman for the church, said bringing the celebration to the U.S. is a way to accommodate the event’s growth and to make the gathering more accessible for their worshipers in the States.

The gathering will begin Saturday morning with a welcoming ceremony, followed by three days of prayer and forums about issues affecting families and youth.

It will culminate with the main ceremony Wednesday, Feb. 14, led by Apostle Naason Joaquin García, the church’s leader. It will be a day of prayer in which bread and wine, which symbolize the blood and body of Jesus Christ, will be consecrated by García and distributed to attendees.

The ceremony falls on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Western Christian church, but organizers said that was a coincidence.

The Guadalajara celebration will be held in August, and the church is exploring other places in the U.S. where it may hold future gatherings.

Images of the Holy Supper celebration in Guadalajara show the ceremony evoking strong emotions among worshipers, with people singing, yelping and crying in the presence of García.

The church, known in Spanish as La Luz del Mundo, claims millions of worshipers across the world. Barrera said about 12 percent of its estimated 1 million U.S. members are in California.

A number of Light of the World temples are in Southern California, predominantly in Latino communities such as East Los Angeles, Huntington Park and San Bernardino. There also are temples in Redlands and Pasadena.

Jennifer Hughes, a UC Riverside associate professor focusing on the history of Latin American and Latino religions, found it interesting that an evangelist movement is being exported from Mexico into the United States — it’s usually the other way around, she said.

The church, founded in the 1920s, is “fairly well established,” she said. “What seems new is the kind of rapid expansion of their membership in the last decade or two.”

Hughes said Light of the World represents a “diversity of Christian practice within Latin America and within Mexico, which has been predominantly Roman Catholic for centuries.”

Daniel Ramirez, a Claremont Graduate University associate professor of American religions, said the Holy Supper is an important ritual in the lives of church members.

He said many of the church’s worshipers in the U.S. are undocumented, and with an increased emphasis on illegal immigration across U.S.-Mexico border, “it became harder for people (in the U.S.) to go to Mexico for the event and come back.”

The U.S. gathering is “in response to the needs of the flock,” Ramirez said.

“I think the United States is going to become an increasingly important part of the church,” he said.

IF YOU GO

Who: Light of the World Church

What: Holy Supper five-day gathering

When: Opening ceremony begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. Times were not yet available for other events, but prayers and forums will be held Sunday through Tuesday and the main ceremony will be Wednesday.

Where: Glen Helen Amphitheater, 2575 Glen Helen Parkway, Devore

Information: holysupper.org