Agape Feast

 

The Agape feast was the Eucharistic celebration of the early Christians. While centered on the ritual of the bread and wine, it also included various other ritual elements, including elements of the Passover Seder and of Mediterranean funerary banquets, also termed Agape Feasts. Agape is one of the Greek words for love, particularly applied to selfless love. Such meals were widespread, though not universal, in the early Christian world.

 

Some contemporary Christians participate in Agape meals on rare occasions, to experience this historical form of the Eucharist. Many Christians, however, after celebrating the Eucharist, now routinely participate in a sharing of light refreshments and conversation in an informal gathering that is functionally an Agape. This post-Eucharistic gathering is often called "fellowship hour" or "coffee hour" and is regarded by many clergy as a particularly opportune time for engaging adults in Christian education.

 

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Agape feast", under the G.N U Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

 

At Mosaic Church we celebrate the more contemporary version of an Agape feast. On the first Sunday of every month parishioners bring a dish and all share in a kind of "pot luck" lunch. This is a great opportunity to get to know each other, participate in fellowship, and bring guests. Ethnic foods are encouraged, in past Agape feasts we have had Thai, Korean, Mexican, Italian and Chinese cuisines as well as many traditional American favorites.