congregation vs gathering

congregation and gathering both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
congregation	Yes	No	No	No
gathering	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, gathering is a hypernym of congregation; that is, gathering is a word with a broader meaning than congregation:

Other hypernyms of congregation include assemblage, assembly.

congregation (noun)	gathering (noun)
the act of congregating	the social act of assembling
a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church	the act of gathering something
an assemblage of people or animals or things collected together	sewing consisting of small folds or puckers made by pulling tight a thread in a line of stitching
	a group of persons together in one place