{"id":8201,"date":"2014-04-08T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=8201"},"modified":"2018-11-03T20:22:33","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:22:33","slug":"bethany-seminary-presidential-forum-on-love-feast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2014\/bethany-seminary-presidential-forum-on-love-feast\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethany Seminary\u2019s Presidential Forum Takes a Look at the Love Feast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
A traditional Church of the Brethren love feast service, including this home-made communion bread and individual cups, opened the Presidential Forum at Bethany Seminary on the theme, “Living Love Feast.”<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cLiving Love Feast\u201d 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, and actor and playwright Ted Swartz.<\/p>\n

Previous Presidential Forums have addressed a wide variety of themes, from \u201cHearing Scriptures of Peace\u201d in 2008 to \u201cThe Bible in Our Bones\u201d 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<\/a> .)<\/p>\n

Alumni\/ae gather for pre-forum<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Faculty who presented at the Bethany Presidential Forum 2014 included Russell Haitch, who asked how God “resurrects” our church practices in order to bring transformation.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Carter was one of those presenting the following day, on the topic, \u201cJust Like the First Disciples.\u201d Carter\u2019s 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\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

Also presenting from the Bethany faculty were Denise Kettering-Lane, assistant professor of Brethren Studies, whose address was titled, \u201cBy Water, and Oil: Baptism and Anointing in Brethren Tradition\u201d; Russell Haitch, professor of Christian Education, who spoke on the topic, \u201c\u2018Do This\u2019: Living the Tradition with New People and Young People\u201d; and Malinda Berry, assistant professor of<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Bethany Seminary president Jeff Carter.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Theological Studies, who spoke on \u201cMore than Lighting Candles:\u00a0Theology, Worship, Ritual Action, and the Arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forum seeks new meaning for Brethren tradition<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe patterns of the kingdom,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Shane Claiborne is a peacemaker and Christian activist, and a founder of the Simple Way intentional community in Philadelphia.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking on the topic, \u201cAnother Way of Doing Life,\u201d 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 \u201cwhat it means to be a contrast culture…. That is what God is doing in the world, creating a counter culture community.\u201d He closed by praying, \u201cGive 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two academic presentations given the morning of April 5 started off with a detailed examination of John 13, a \u201chinge\u201d 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 \u201clove is the first and foremost action of this whole chapter. It\u2019s not enough to have knowledge without love.\u201d In John\u2019s 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\u2019 followers will take up, she told the forum.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Ruth Anne Reese’s blessing to forum participants: “May each day be love feast as you seek to live the life of loving service”<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jesus\u2019 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. \u201cBetrayal and denial are kneeling at the communion rail with us,\u201d she said. \u201cEven when love feast has been betrayed by the members of the community, they are encouraged to respond with prayer and mercy.\u201d 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. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the love feast matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDo ritual meals really matter?\u201d asked the second guest academic, Janet R. Walton, professor of Worship at Union Theological Seminary in New York. \u201cIn the face of unceasing poverty, violence that just doesn\u2019t stop, day-to-day choices that cost us, does anyone think that ritual meals matter? I guess I do!\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
The closing worship service included bread and cup communion. After selections from “Fish Eyes” by actor and playwright Ted Swartz, the forum experience closed with worship shaped around the four parts of the love feast.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Walton assumes, she said, that \u201call rituals are in constant need of repair\u201d and that \u201cin all ritual something is at stake.\u201d She urged the forum to consider the \u201cgaps\u201d 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\u2019s dead. \u201cThe gap on the floor changed everything,\u201d Walton said. \u201cTo eat and drink, we had to walk around and over them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201crituals 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.\u201d At Union, she said, \u201cWe are aiming at the table for elasticity and generosity…. Making space for what we don\u2019t know, making space for one another\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The forum concluded with a number of \u201cbreak out sessions\u201d\u00a0led by\u00a0Brethren pastors and church leaders including \u201cAfrican Sahilian Love Feasts and Communion\u201d with Roger Schrock; \u201cBringing Children to Christ\u2019s Table\u201d with Linda Waldron; a panel discussion of \u201cLove Feast: Tradition and Innovation\u201d: \u201cA Poetic Love Feast\u201d with Karen Garrett; and \u201cLiving Love Feast: From Re-enactment to Formative Worship\u201d with Paul Stutzman.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
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.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The closing worship service began with Ted Swartz giving a solo version of selections from \u201cFish Eyes,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are gathered as guests at your table,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

A photo album of pictures from the forum is at www.bluemelon.com\/churchofthebrethren\/livinglovefeastbethanyseminaryforum2014<\/a> .<\/p>\n

— Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford is director of News Services for the Church of the Brethren.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLiving Love Feast\u201d 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, actor and playwright Ted Swartz, Janet R. Walton of Union Theological Seminary, and Ruth Anne Reese of Asbury Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1268],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-8201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bethany-seminary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8210,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8201\/revisions\/8210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8201"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=8201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}