Eucharist and food

One of the things I like about the church Nadia and I attend in DC is its appreciation for the significance of food in Christian spirituality. We receive communion gathered around the altar, a table across which everyone in the community is visible and present to everyone else. The sacrament truly feels like a meal.

While the congregation worships upstairs, a parish-run hot meals program is serving lunch downstairs. Nadia sometimes serves as one of the two lay eucharistic ministers who take bread and wine from the altar, walk downstairs to the lunch room, and serve communion to all who wish to receive it. One of the better ways to connect theology w/ praxis that I've encountered--and all of it related to food.

Yes magazine--a publication I often avoid for its pesky optimism--has a great q+a with Sara Miles, an Episcopalian whose adult conversion was deeply connected to the spirituality of food and hospitality. Miles now runs a large food pantry out of her church in San Francisco and consults with others--a practice that, among other things, brings liberal Episcopalians and conservative Pentecostals in conversation about the Christian imperative to feed.

Via Eliacin Rosario-Cruz.