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| Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
“Living Love Feast” was the theme of the sixth Presidential Forum
held at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind. A Pre-Forum
Gathering April 3-4 was led by Bethany faculty and alumni. The forum on
April 4-5 featured guest speakers and presenters including activist and
peacemaker Shane Claiborne, Janet R. Walton of Union Theological
Seminary, Ruth Anne Reese of Asbury Theological Seminary, actor and
playwright Ted Swartz.
Previous Presidential Forums have addressed a wide variety of themes,
from “Hearing Scriptures of Peace” in 2008 to “The Bible in Our Bones”
in 2013. The intent of the forum is to build community among those at
the seminary, the wider church, and the public, and to provide visionary
leadership for reimagining the role of seminaries in public discourse,
by exploring topics that thoughtfully address issues of faith and
ethics. A grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations endows the
forum. (Find a photo album at
www.bluemelon.com/churchofthebrethren/livinglovefeastbethanyseminaryforum2014.)
Alumni/ae gather for pre-forum
An evening love feast service including feetwashing, the love feast
meal, and communion opened the Pre-Forum Gathering, which was sponsored
by the Bethany Seminary Alumni/ae Coordinating Council. After love
feast, attendees also enjoyed dips of ice cream and fruit cobbler served
up by president Jeff Carter along with others from the faculty, student
body, and board.
Carter was one of those presenting the following day, on the topic,
“Just Like the First Disciples.” Carter’s reflections on the traditional
forms of the elements of love feast as practiced by the Church of the
Brethren, invited response from attendees. As all of the forum
presentations, Carter’s concluded with a time for questions from the
audience and responses by the presenter. Carter focused on how changes
in the elements of love feast may affect the meaning and value of the
service for individuals and the church. The presentation encouraged
consideration of the cultural constructs of the love feast, leaving the
question open: if we change elements of love feast, will the meaning
change?
Also presenting from the Bethany faculty were Denise Kettering-Lane,
assistant professor of Brethren Studies, whose address was titled, “By
Water, and Oil: Baptism and Anointing in Brethren Tradition”; Russell
Haitch, professor of Christian Education, who spoke on the topic, “‘Do
This’: Living the Tradition with New People and Young People”; and
Malinda Berry, assistant professor of Theological Studies, who spoke on
“More than Lighting Candles: Theology, Worship, Ritual Action, and the
Arts.”
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Bethany Seminary president Jeff Carter
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Forum seeks new meaning for Brethren tradition
With an array of speakers and presenters from outside the
denomination, including academics, activists, and artists, the forum
itself served to add meaning to the Brethren understanding of the love
feast tradition.
Claiborne, who was a featured speaker at National Youth Conference
2010 and has served with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, is a
founder of the Simple Way faith community in Philadelphia. He traced the
life experiences that led him to commit to follow Jesus, which he
characterized as a commitment to actively look for “the patterns of the
kingdom,” from his youth in Tennessee through a time of volunteering
with Mother Theresa to involvement with a movement of homeless families
in Philadelphia. The occupation by homeless families of an abandoned
church in Philadelphia led to the Simple Way community in which
Claiborne currently lives and works.
Speaking on the topic, “Another Way of Doing Life,” Claiborne told
many stories from his work and that of his community--ranging from
pounding handguns into pieces of art, to planting community gardens in
vacant lots--that illustrate “what it means to be a contrast culture....
That is what God is doing in the world, creating a counter culture
community.” He closed by praying, “Give us dreams and visions, O God,
for what you want to do in this world.... Help us fall in love with you
so deeply that we become more like you.”
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
If we don't eat together, can we make peace together? asked Janet
Walton, in her examination of the meaning of ritual meals like the love
feast and communion |
The two academic presentations given the morning of April 5 started
off with a detailed examination of John 13, a “hinge” chapter in the
gospel of John describing the last supper Jesus ate with his disciples
and a model for the Brethren practice of love feast. Ruth Anne Reese,
Beeson Chair of Biblical Studies and professor of New Testament at
Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmington, Ky., noted that “love is the
first and foremost action of this whole chapter. It’s not enough to have
knowledge without love.” In John’s telling of the events of the last
supper, Jesus demonstrates love in the face of danger and treachery, and
despite betrayal, even by his closest friends and followers. It
foreshadows the kind of life Jesus’ followers will take up, she told the
forum.
Jesus’ persistence in serving and loving the disciples who will soon
betray and deny him is a model for pastors today, she said, calling for
recognition of the realities of working in the church as a human
community. “Betrayal and denial are kneeling at the communion rail with
us,” she said. “Even when love feast has been betrayed by the members of
the community, they are encouraged to respond with prayer and mercy.”
She urged attendees to look for inspiration not at the form and practice
of the love feast, but at the Lord to whom the love feast points. “We
can only trust in the midst of betrayal when we are looking at Jesus.
You have to look at Jesus for the ideal, and the community is the
imperfect living out of that reality.”
Does the love feast matter?
“Do ritual meals really matter?” asked the second guest academic,
Janet R. Walton, professor of Worship at Union Theological Seminary in
New York. “In the face of unceasing poverty, violence that just doesn’t
stop, day-to-day choices that cost us, does anyone think that ritual
meals matter? I guess I do!” She examined the nature of ritual meals
such as the love feast and communion, and the historical first century
Greco-Roman meal tradition with which the early church would have been
familiar, using a variety of media images of meals and stories from a
variety of communion services held at the chapel at Union Theological
Seminary.
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Shane Claiborne is a peacemaker and Christian activist, and a founder of the Simple Way intentional community in Philadelphia.
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Walton assumes, she said, that “all rituals are in constant need of
repair” and that “in all ritual something is at stake.” She urged the
forum to consider the “gaps” in our worship practices, in order to
better serve the community--who may be left out, how rituals reinforce
or break boundaries, how in rituals communities and individuals are
forced to make choices. Among others, she gave the example of a chapel
service at Union held on an Iraq war anniversary, led by a peace and
justice group. Inert bodies were lying on the floor, students playing
the role of the war’s dead. “The gap on the floor changed everything,”
Walton said. “To eat and drink, we had to walk around and over them.”
Such experiences will not be welcomed by all, she acknowledged, even
as her presentation encouraged listeners to continually examine how
their churches plan and carry out rituals. She emphasized that “rituals
that are effective often draw us closer to the experiences of our
lives.... When our rituals enact experience that can prick our skin and
disturb our hearts, we are led to do something.” At Union, she said, “We
are aiming at the table for elasticity and generosity.... Making space
for what we don’t know, making space for one another’s needs.”
The forum concluded with a number of “break out sessions” led by
Brethren pastors and church leaders including “African Sahilian Love
Feasts and Communion” with Roger Schrock; “Bringing Children to Christ’s
Table” with Linda Waldron; a panel discussion of “Love Feast: Tradition
and Innovation”: “A Poetic Love Feast” with Karen Garrett; and “Living
Love Feast: From Re-enactment to Formative Worship” with Paul Stutzman.
The closing worship service began with Ted Swartz giving a solo
version of selections from “Fish Eyes,” acting the part of the disciple
Peter in scenes drawn from the four gospels, followed by a time of
worship in the order of the love feast: examination and confession,
feetwashing, meal, and communion.
“We are gathered as guests at your table,” said the worship leader
who gave a prayer of blessing for the bread and the cup. It was a
fitting invitation for participants to look toward the celebration of
love feast with their own congregations during Holy Week, with a
heightened awareness of the deep meaning of the familiar tradition, and
eyes open for new understandings and new meaning to emerge.
A photo album of pictures from the forum is at
www.bluemelon.com/churchofthebrethren/livinglovefeastbethanyseminaryforum2014.
-- Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford is director of News Services for the Church of the Brethren.
Source: 4/8/2014 Newsline
