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Although the pandemic has brought about many changes, making and breaking bread together at St. Paul’s is and has been an important part of our community life for many decades. Lenten Lunches springs to mind with its long and storied history of hospitality “in the heart of the city,” and significantly across the street from the seat of power. Lenten dinners were also a Lenten tradition. Each speaker was the honored guest at a potluck dinner at the home of a parishioner. Many memorable evenings with theologians and preachers from around the country are shared experiences we cherish.
For many years Foyer Dinners brought us together in each other’s homes for a monthly Sunday night potluck. Conversation, celebration, laughter and tears were our way of forging lifelong relationships among the congregants. Second Sunday Suppers are a wonderful new way of continuing the tradition of breaking bread together on a regular basis.
Back on Grace Street Eyes on Richmond gave us an opportunity at noon on Fridays to focus on issues important to our city and its leadership. Housing, schools, businesses, urban planning were all presented and discussed while meals were served by volunteers and food provided by local restaurants.
For over forty years the “Nine O’clock” service was the epitome of making and breaking bread together for many at St. Paul’s. Bakers prepared loaves of bread for the participatory communion service in which all gathered in the chancel around the altar. Crockery was commissioned for the service. Priests distributed the bread and parishioners administered the cup to one another with the words “the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.” The service, which began as a small gathering in Scott Hall in the early seventies, grew into an emblematic aspect of our parish life. Spirituals, Jesuit hymns, and Taize chants, flute, guitar, piano, and ensemble singing were all added over the years. In the celebration circle at the conclusion of the eucharist, we shared our milestone anniversaries, birthdays, accomplishments, and sorrows as well. Visitors and newcomers were introduced and welcomed. The service concluded with a lengthy and heartwarming sharing of the Peace.
Now, when Lynn Katrady leads us in singing the Lord’s Prayer, we are flooded with memories of those services, those faces, those melodies and the time in which we truly were “one bread, one body and one cup of blessing which we blessed.”
We give you thanks oh God, for all the blessings of this day. Bless this food and those who prepared it. Make us always mindful of and responsive to the needs of others. Amen.
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