Monkfish Eucharist
A little thanksgiving ritual ‘round the bread and wine.

The Gathering
We gather around the table with friends to remember Jesus, who spent some of his last hours around the table with friends, passing around bread and wine. The reason he did this, and the reason we do this, is to create a bond with one another, and with God. It’s a simple habit of eating from the same piece of bread, drinking from the same cup of wine, and remembering the same person together. But it gives a rhythm to our living, a rhythm of remembrance, of togetherness, of being present to a few simple actions, of marking a few moments of holy time.

The Blessing (said together)
Blessed are you O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe
who has given us:
the grain of the earth
the fruit of the vine
the blood of your vein
the pulse of your heart.
Amen.

The Preparation
The body of Christ broken for you. The blood of Christ shed for you.
God birthed us. God loves us. God feeds us.

The Phrase for Passing
(said to each person as the bread and wine circle the table):
“God loves us.”

Closing Grace (sung together)

Caller: Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God in the highest
All: (echo)
Caller: Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God in the highest
All: (echo)
Caller: To God be Glory forever
All: (echo)
Caller: To God be Glory forever
All: (echo)
Together: Alleluia Amen. (4 times, slower on the fourth)

___________________________________________

The opening words are based on John 17 “The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind…” We wanted a short explanation to orient ourselves and our guest to the meal, but it had to be informal, brief and fairly easy to swallow theologically. We didn’t want anything to long or official sounding, because we liked how our prayer for the bread and wine flows into our dinner grace, and how the whole thing melds into our evening meal.

The blessing is something we’ve been doing for awhile now. It’s patterened after Jewish prayers of thanksgiving. We use “Ruler” instead of the more tradtional “King of the Universe” in order to acknowledge the fact that we are, men and women, made in God’s image, therefore God both transcends gender and embodies both genders.

In the preparation we use the phrase “God birthed us” to honor the female imagry so often missed in the concept of “creation.” These three phrases — birthed, loves, feeds — are a sort of distilling of basic ideas. It’s an attempt to be generous in our creeds.

Our phrase for passing is very simple to accomodate a variety of beliefs about “what’s happening” in Communion. It’s just the basics: this is about the Divine, this is about love, this is about us as a community/family/one body.

The table grace is something Brian McClaren taught us at a conference in Cincinatti in January 04. We’ve been doing it as our general table prayer ever since. I think Brian said he learned it in Peru.