by Nathan Brasfield, Director of Youth and Community Ministries
One of the reasons I am glad to be an Episcopalian is that I am given liturgical space every week to participate in the Eucharist and to consider what it means for me on any given day. Theologians who think about this sort of thing at length have termed how the communion meal should serve to shape all of our meals “Eucharistic eating.” In Eucharistic eating, we are mindful of how ingesting food—any food—connects us to the earth from which we come and to which we return, connects us to God, and connects us to each other in ways that never cease to open up to new insights, challenges, and experiences.
One of the most important things to discover in Eucharistic eating is that—just as in the Eucharist itself—our connections to God, the earth, and each other through food have to do not only with how we eat but also with how we feed others.
On one Wednesday late this past winter, during a noon Healing Eucharist service held in the chapel, I happened to sit in a chair in which, to my immediate right, I could gaze directly upon the communion table from which those of us there were symbolically (but no less literally) being fed bread and wine. At the same time, I could look straight ahead of me out the window and see a person sitting on a bench outside the Welcome Inn, eagerly eating a cup of ramen noodles.
You might not be aware that for some time, our community liaison at Calvary, Mak Clayton, has served light lunches in snack bags (or cups of ramen noodles) on Mondays through Wednesdays out of the door of Calvary’s Welcome Inn building, free to whoever needs them. To better connect with and serve our downtown neighbors who might benefit from resources available at Calvary (such as Neighborhood Breakfast) or resources that we can help connect them to, and to complement the AA meeting that meets in the Welcome Inn at noon every weekday, lunch bags (and/or cups of soup) are now provided Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Along with our Sunday morning Neighborhood Breakfast, these meals continue to be literal (but no less symbolic) ways in which Calvary seeks to feed as we are fed.
And this ministry’s participation and support already involve people beyond Calvary’s Sunday morning congregation. A few months ago, Carla Brooks would walk by the Welcome Inn at lunchtime during the week, notice people receiving a quick lunch from the red door at 82 N. 2nd St., and continue making her way to or from her job at a law office just down the street. Then, one day, she decided to see what she could do to participate. “I kept telling myself for the longest time that I would stop to help,” Carla said. “And one day I finally did it.” On this particular day, she approached Parish Chef Mary O’Brien, who was outside receiving a delivery. Mary then pointed her to Mak, who introduced her to the Welcome Inn.
Ever since that day she first stopped to ask about what we do here, on most days, Carla has taken long lunch breaks from her very busy job to serve our downtown neighbors with a welcoming smile. I asked her the other day what insights she has had since she started volunteering at the Welcome Inn. With noticeable eagerness and sincerity, Carla replied that she had gained a different perspective. “It gives you a renewed sense of reality,” she said, “to let you recognize that you’re not any better than anybody else. If I had to give a takeaway, it would be a renewed sense of humility.”
Carla’s service at the Welcome Inn demonstrates that making God’s love visible in downtown Memphis is not something that makes Calvary unique; it is simply something that we aim to foster and celebrate, however and in whomever it happens. And there is plenty of room for you at the Welcome Inn, both at Room in the Inn and at lunch during the week. Since we have the Nooners AA meeting at the same time and folks popping in to use the restrooms, it’s always beneficial to have a couple of extra people involved with the distribution of the Welcome Inn Lunch Bags. We could especially use volunteers from May 19 through June 13, so let us know if you’d like to try it out! We could also use help sourcing the food we share, so contact us if you’d like to help provide ready-to-eat foods like sandwiches, pastries, fruit, etc. (We also gladly accept monetary donations to help cover purchases we need to make.)