A touch of heaven - pt 2, breaking bread

Part 1

I have been to a number of shared meals here, some shared by church folk after church, one after a funeral, and some inviting the community to share.  All of them have been on disposable plates, and either buffet or queue past the servers.  All very practical and utilitarian, and it seems America has not really grasped the eco message in a disposable world.

But here at the Wednesday Welcome Table serving nearly 500 people in 4 sittings - practical things have been laid aside for dignity.  We queue to get in, but then sit at laid tables with cloths,  real plates, cloth napkins, and servers come to the table. The salad and rolls are already on the table and we pass it around, conversation begins with Howard next to me, in the midst of the busy noise of the hall's echoes.

Today it is stroganoff  and the servers greet us as if they haven't done this for two sittings already, and with another to follow.   It is not unusual for churches here to have Welcome Table meals one day or other a week to which anyone can come and no-one charges a fee (though a box may discretely loiter for those who can afford to contribute), and being in the city centre it is not surprising to find the numbers higher.  But the higher the number of people the more likely we are to revert to more practical serving patterns, queuing past a hatch etc.

The decision to treat the meal as restaurant style, the rarity of real crockery in a disposable culture, the 100s of napkins that need someone to put them through a washing machine every week, these lift it beyond providing people's food need, to something that greets individuals as valuable people - whether they sleep on the street, have a home and a hard time, or are a visitor who can afford to be on a trip from abroad.

There was communion in the service that I went to later but as the pastor leading this adventure said in his welcome and notices, they have church upstairs and downstairs.  And there was for me a real sense of


communion in the breaking of bread, serving of salad and enjoyment of stroganoff.

PS. Dogs were welcome too, to come in and sit under the tables at one end of the hall.  (Across my visit I got a variety of substitute doggy cuddles)

Part 3