Grace | The Table | 09-2009

The Table was a banquet, with courses punctuated by liturgies. Many of the courses were partly made by the congregation, from ingredients provided.

Making our own labels - who are you and what do you bring to the table? Put on the bottles of wine that will be brought to the table.

The setup - a single long table. The balloons were a delightful surprise - left over from a wedding earlier in the day!

Amuse bouche, with an examen.

The entrée - salad ingredients brought to the table, for us to make the salads in groups. An item on its own is not so great but together make something better – a picture of Grace. We give thanks for community and all its ingredients.

Plat Principal - we add crackers to the table. There are cards in the crackers with the Grace 'ethos' words on - exchange cards to select one which you have done in the last year and one challenge for the year ahead.

Discuss your choices over the meal.

After the main course, we listen to readings from the Bible and pray, writing our prayers on the tablecloth.

For dessert, we make our own cookies using the decorations on the table.

The cookies are taken to be baked.

We drink toasts while we are waiting. Hot towels are brought round and we say a prayer of blessing.

The return of the baked cookies!

We left the church at 11.45pm, having begun the food preparation in mid-afternoon. The service itself had run for perhaps two hours.