The Loss of the Table

By the late 20th/early 21st Century the idea of feasting seems no longer pertinent. The table retaining only a much diminished meaning. The church being one of the few organisations that can still claim its centrality via the Mass or Holy Communion.

Mostly the table survives as a relic from another age, living in what might be decsribed as a post table society. The larger gathering are now rare. Drinking has overtaken food as the metier of this type of gathering. The practice of the shared meal is almost gone, replaced by grazing and the TV dinner. The table no longer plays the crucial role in culture it once did in the evolution of western society.

In it with this background that I am seeking to re-establish value and practice by developing the concept of Table Church in my local community. Everytime we meet and eat together a deeper bond is formed that by any other activity. It is this that I want work out into something that includes worship, discipleship and mission.