TC & YG 8

For last night's Table Church we took a road trip to Tickenham where Gilly had prepared a very fine Chili for us all. This was washed down with 'sugary goodness' and various sorbets. An excellent repast. During the evening we talked about a variety of subjects. Jon had just finished a paper on Oliver Cromwell which led to a discussion about the merits of those who think they are right because they are on a mission from God.

After the main course we played 'Characters' from the Family Fun set produced by Talking Tables. I had bought these at our bring and buy over the weekend. They will no doubt prove quite useful at our TC gatherings.

As this was the last meeting prior to the MA presentation day I decided to seek some feedback on our experiment. The feedback was surprisingly positive and so I have recorded the responses given below.


Alex: TC stimulates discussion better that sitting in a room having a meeting. Being close around a table makes me feel more of a group.

Jon: In these gatherings everyone talks and i much prefer it to the old style meetings.

Michaela: I talk a lot more and am more engaged than before. I used to just switch off or go to sleep.

Natalie: It's very relaxing, and has taught me quite a lot about the Bible. It has opened up things for me. I am learning in a way that's not making me want to run away.

Gilly: Having a meal together makes the evening completely not like a meeting. We can talk and be relaxed when thinking about ideas and even begin to play with the ideas.

Table Church 5

Another evening of Table Church brought some more new things. To begin with, we held the met ting at new venue for the first time. In order for Sean and Becky to join us we were invited to their house. This brought the number in the group up to eight.

I decided to allow the conversation to develop as was natural without resorting to an icebreaker, in order to put the new members at their ease. Later on we all shared in an exercise to do with brokenness. I took along a range of broken tile pieces and asked people to take as many as they liked. We then sat with these pieces and brought to mind the broken areas of our lives. Finally we laid the pieces around the cross to form a mosaic. The intention being to show how God is able to use our brokenness to form something new and beautiful when it shared with others.

Some interesting things happened during this activity. Some people wanted to move the pieces because they were not in the right place (in their view) others only wanted to place one piece, some placed their tiles on the very edge of the mosaic and then there was all the pieces that were not chosen and placed. This led to to a discussion about the nature of the church and our part in it and also about those who were left out in some way. This was perhaps the most interesting discussion so far and the most missional.

Breakfast

We had one of our occasional breakfasts at church this morning. It was great just to look across the room and see everyone just enjoying each others company. There is certainly a difference when we begin with food - the ice is broken and the family is formed. It does lead to slightly messier beginning but it also loosens people's stays as it were. One of our children was prompted by the atmosphere to share about her father's cancer operation - it was very moving.

Random Quotes

"... it's the really hungry who can smell fresh bread a mile away. For those who know their need, God is immediate - not an idea, not a theory, but life, food, air for the stifled spirit and the beaten, despised, exploited body." (Rowan Williams)

"We as a Christian community must serve up the new wine, prepare a table of the Lord's art even in the presence of our enemies, so that there is artistic food and drink which the body of Christ needs to be healthy." (Calvin Seerveld, A Christian Critique of Art and Literature)

The Hospitality of Polycarp - James Nesbitt

“The Hospitality of Polycarp” was inspired by the short document “The Martyrdom of Polycarp,” written shortly after the old man’s execution sometime around 155A.D. A much revered bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor, Polycarp was in his mid-80’s when he was arrested and executed in one of the long series of persecutions that besieged the Christian church over the first 300 years of its existence.

As the story is told in the ancient document, under torture a servant had betrayed Polycarp’s whereabouts to the Roman authorities and in time soldiers arrived at his door to arrest him.

“As soon as he heard them arrive, he went down and chatted with them; and everyone there was struck by his age and his calmness, and surprised that the arrest of such an old man could be so urgent. In spite of the lateness of the hour he at once ordered them to be given all the food and drink they wanted; and then asked if he might be allowed an hour to pray undisturbed. When they consented, he got to his feet and prayed; so full of the grace of God, that two whole hours went by before he could bring himself to be silent again. All who heard him were struck with awe, and many of them began to regret this expedition against a man so old and saintly.”

Marked by this same sense of regret over having to deal with Polycarp, later that night a police commissioner extends an invitation to the aged bishop to renounce his faith:

“They took him into their carriage, sat down beside him, and addressed him persuasively. “Come now,” they said, “where is the harm in just saying ‘Caesar is Lord,’ and offering the incense, and so forth, when it will save your life?”

Even in the arena, with the lions waiting to be released upon their prey, the Governor is said to have pressed him one more time:

“The Governor… went on pressing him. “Take the oath, and I will let you go,” he told him. “Revile your Christ.” Polycarp’s reply was, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me now wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”

In his interpretation of the events, Nesbitt compresses the force of these various attempts to let Polycarp recant into a single scene, set at the dinner table which has been offered to the arresting soldiers. While the 2nd Century account has the aged bishop in prayer during the meal, Nesbitt places Polycarp at the table with his captors, extending to them the sort of table hospitality which Jesus models throughout the gospels. Head lifted in laughter, Nesbitt’s Polycarp embodies a deeply challenging Christian truth: he is one who can not and will not confess any other Lord than Jesus, but he is also one who cannot do other than open his table to any and all, including those who would take his life. In this there are echoes of the observations Michael Welker makes regarding the last supper:

“The Supper makes clear that Jesus’ community is jeopardized not only “from outside,” but also “from inside” – even by his disciples. Judas’ betrayal, the disciples asleep in Gethsemane, and Peter’s denial make this clear. In the situation of external and internal danger, Jesus institutes the “memorial meal” of liberation.”

The occasion for the hospitality offered by Polycarp to his captors is triggered by a betrayal by one of his own servants, and yet, as with the last supper, it becomes a meal which proclaims the deep liberation found only in Christ.

Pre-worship Suppers

Another excellent idea from the St Benedict's Table website (http://stbenedictstable.ca/news-events/). Perhaps this might be a variation of Table Church that we could employ at Mead Vale on a regular basis.

"Pat and Ian Mowatt have one more of their Sunday evening pre-worship suppers lined up, this one set for May 3. The idea is that they open their home to a group of up to a dozen guests, and share a meal and some hospitality before heading off to church for worship. "

Theology by the Glass

An interesting idea found on the St Benedict's Table website (http://stbenedictstable.ca/theology-by-the-glass/)

"We are just about to again launch our occasional series of conversations called “Theology by the Glass.” These evenings are held monthly from May through September, when many of our regular activities are in summer break mode. Held in a local restaurant or pub, these evenings are about the most laid back approach to Christian education that you can imagine. Basically, an article is distributed a week or two in advance of the gathering, which acts as grist for our conversational mill."

TC @ YG 7

This was an evening when more of the group were available than we first thought would be. First there was the welcome return of Michaela after the Gang Show and some illness. Then Jenny and Amie turned up unexpectedly. All of which led to a more interesting evening. Katy had gone crazy and cooked a delicious full chicken dinner with all the trimmings , and there was even chocolate cake for afters - woo! At table we discussed the Easter messages of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope - and their press coverage. It was easy to see how only the most controversial passages were recorded.

After this we have some time off over dessert with an outbreak of Rock Band and ended with an episode of the Big Bang Theory - which has recently become de rigor.

Almonds

The almond is naturally bitter in taste and full of prussic acid. However occasionally a sweet almond is found. These mutations have been bred for us to enjoy. "If you think you can taste a hint of a prussic parable here, you're right. We're all connected by the gossamer web of shy pleasures and shared joy. The triumph of civilisation has always been to find the one sweet nut in the bag of bitter ones. And, boy, are we suffering a lot of bitter nuts at the moment.
PS: Most of the world's almonds are now grown America." (A. A. Gill - Table Talk)

A Fondness for Fondue

"I could write a thesis on the pivotal cultural importance of the fondue set but I won't. It was a talisman and inanimate pathfinder of everything we consider contemporary. This simple cast iron pot with its meths burner and barbed forks stood on the cusp between two societies: one that looked back to the Edwardians for its instructions, and another that looked forward to a new, clean, abstract Elizabethan age."

Table Talk - A.A. Gill

The Bible & The Cabbage

"The entry for cabbage in the Larousse Gastronomique starts with the heavenly sentence: 'The cabbage seems to have been unknown to the Hebrews. It is not mentioned in the Bible. I love that - so French. Just the slightest note of disappointment with God; just the merest raised eyebrow and pursued Gallic lip. You can imagine a French chef in confession: 'Bless me Father for I have sinned — but I'm not the only one: God left cabbages out of the Bible.'" AA Gill - Table Talk

TC @ YG 6

A wonderful evening of Table Church with almost all the young people getting together in a big reunion Chinese meal. There was a great deal of noise and energy around the table and a really special feeling of having the whole YG family together for the first time since Christmas. As part of the evening I told the group the story of what I did the previous Sunday morning. A large group of children and young people turned up unexpectedly at church for the morning service. Unfortunately it was not particularly aimed at them and they soon got bored and left en masse. Prompted by the Spirit I followed them out and after catching up with them, explained that I was not cross with them but wanted apologise for the fact that the church had let them down.

What followed was sheer pantomime - we went to the swamp (a place I never knew existed) and sat in a tree and talked about what they thought church ought to be and what they would like us to provide for them. Then we had a brush with some swans and finally I returned to church with the service long over and things bring packed away. It was one of the best Sundays I have had for a long time. Katy suggested that we might do a version of Table Church for these kids after Easter just to see how it works.

YG found the whole story fascinating and much sharing followed. All in all the evening was the best TC so far with this group.

Table Church 4

We met for our fourth and probably best meeting yet on Monday 6th April. Ostensibly the topic was Easter and yes we did spend some time just outlining the events from Palm Sunday through to Easter Day. But as always events had overtaken us. We ended up taking about two things that had occurred on the previous Sunday. Firstly I went walkabout after a group of children who came unexpectedly to Church and left half way through. I felt that I wanted to apologise to them for not meeting their needs and find out what they wanted from church. (More in the next post). We also shared about a service of thanksgiving that was held after the main service and seemed to open up a vein of healing for a number of people.

I also introduced some liturgy for the first time and we had a washing of hands as shared in a simple communion as our part of remembering the events of Maundy Thursday. The liturgy was based on material produced by Mark Berry on his Way Out West Blog. It proved very effective and shows that there is a place for it in the Table Church experience.

Alexis Soyer and Military Food

For each team, the natural, national taste of their country emerges. The Americans cook big, with loud flavours, the Hungarians are honest and peasanty, the French are effortlessly the best. Far more than flags and anthems, food is the metaphor and symbol of where you come from and what you might choose to die for. The breakfast of armies is the most basic communion with what they're fighting for. Soyer was a foreigner who took to being English with an immigrant enthusiasm. He understood that armies don't just march on their stomachs; they get their camaraderie, bravery and patriotism through them.

A. A. Gill - The Dinner Party

We are the only animals in God's creation who share our food with members of our own species to whom we are not related. There is a kitchen adage that says: 'If the food is the star of your dinner party then you're inviting the wrong people.' Let's face it: dinner parties are social events and the company is the main thing.

A.A. Gill - Table Talk (Orion Books 2008)

The Prayer of Humble Access

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness,
but in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy
so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy:
Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,
so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood,
that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,
and our souls washed through his most precious blood,
and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

This wonderful prayer by Thomas Cranmer which we find in the heart of the service of Holy Communion from the time of the reformation, turns the the experience of the Canaanite woman and makes it our own. We, like her, knowing that we are complete outsiders but are drawing near anyway for the Bread of life - knowing also that His nature is always to have mercy.

The Heavenly Banquet

In the story of the Heavenly Banquet mentioned in Luke 14:8-13, Jesus appears to offer an universal invitation and but not universal hospitality. However our continued presence is not determined by status but by the criteria for remaining welcome - the wedding robe. Which is reminiscent of the clothes put on in Colossians 3.

Dining Together

Dining together is not only a sociable thing to do, it is also an experience through which relationships are formed and learning takes place. Meals invariably involve conversation and conversation involves listening which leads to empathy, challenge and change. Matthew (Levi) organises a symposium and invites Jesus not just to eat but to teach (Luke 5:29-35). In the course of the meal change takes place.

Eucharistic Food

The act of remembrance comes through eating. We may not always remember what we eat but in Christ we eat what we remember. Christ both word and bread. He is the bread of life and always has been. In eating we take it into ourselves, and it becomes part of us and we part of it. The physical and spiritual become inseparable.

Fashion Taste and Eating Out

The fashionability of dining out has meant that the practice has become more than a means for maintaining the body, it has become a source of shared cultural beliefs. For example, foodstuffs have frequently acquired social meanings that refer to properties beyond their nutritional qualities. In certain times and places, the taste for game has been associated with wealth and prestige because it was hunted by the landed gentry; oysters have been regarded as aphrodisiacs; truffles have been seen as embodiments of the mysteries of old Europe. Barthes has described food as 'a system of communication', 'a body of images', 'an intimate part of the protocol of social life'. Similarly, the places in which one eats carry various meanings; a restaurant has distinctions that a cafe, a tavern and a picnic do not. The diner sees in both the restaurant and its foodstuffs some broader social values; for example, a luxuriously appointed restaurant may evoke an aristocratic way of life long associated with the pleasures of being served by an indentured class. Or an appetite for and 'au courant' view that food is not a banal and simple ingredient in the maintenance of life but rather a cultural event and form of aesthetic in which its arrangement and colouring should be appreciated as if they were works of art. In these ways, the practice of dining out in a restaurant can also be seen as a purveyor of cultural values and social images; it is where we can learn to act and feel in accord with the desires of the times.

When people start flocking to a small, inner city bar because they have learned that cocktails are in (again), they also come to see that the hours spent over a gaudily coloured beverage are amongst their most pleasurable; when the pasta restaurant becomes the favourite haunt of the cosmopolitan it has much to do with his/her acceptance of the idea that ethnic diversity is attractive. The different meanings and cultural values attached to the various forms of dining out indicate that tastes in foods and preferences in the style of dining out are not independent of other features of the social epoch. Restaurants have been included in the orbit of fashions.

Fashion, Taste and Eating Out - Joanne Finkelstein
The Polity Reader in Cultural Theory (Polity Press: Cambridge 1994)

TC @ YG 5

Another Tuesday - another YG gathering and a further opportunity to experiment with the TC format. This week we used some wise words of famous people on the subjects of Leadership and Service to stimulate the conversation over dinner. This proved quite effective and the balance between the two subjects meant that the focus was both inward (Leadership) and outward (Service). Here are two samples of the the quotations that we used.

Try not to become a person of success,
but rather a person of value - Albert Einstein

Life's most persistent and urgent question is
'What are you doing for others?' - Martin Luther King Jr.

The Perpetual Struggle for Room and Food

The English economist Robert Malthus, in his essay "On the Principles of Population" written in 1798, uses this telling phrase to describe much of the the underlying motives of the human condition. He suggests that it is the cause of a 'prodigious waste of human life'. The basic need for food and shelter must be met before man can entertain much consideration of the nature of life and the existence of God. It is a struggle still being undertaken today by much of the developing world.

The Company Makes the Feast

If you ever wondered where this phrase originated, then this is for you. Here are the results of my research. It was true in the 17th Century and remains so today.

Take this for a rule, you may pick out such times and such companies, that you may make yourselves merrier,‥for 'tis the company and not the charge [expense] that makes the feast.

[1653 I. Walton Compleat Angler iii.]

Epicurus maintained that you should rather have regard to the company with whom you eat‥than to what you eat. ‥This has been crystallised into the terse English proverb, ‘The company makes the feast.’

[1911 F. W. Hackwood Good Cheer xxxii.]

It is the company which makes the occasion, not the surroundings.

[1981 ‘J. Sturrock’ Suicide most Foul vi.]