A Table in the Wilderness: Lent Lunch, 20th March, 12 pm to 2 pm

Lent can be intense, can’t it. A little austere. A little searching. Some days luminous, some days just grey and damp and full of unfinished to do lists. And somewhere in the middle of all that, we need a table.

Not a grand one. Not one groaning under silverware and spectacle. Just a simple church table. Soup. Bread. Maybe something gently sweet. Mugs that don’t quite match. The soft scrape of chairs on the floor.

On Friday 20th March, from 12 pm until 2 pm, we’re gathering for a Lent Lunch. Nothing fancy. No performance. Just fellowship. The old fashioned kind. The kind that actually feeds you.

There is something deeply subversive about sitting down together in a season that tells us to examine ourselves. We discover we are not alone in the examining. We are not the only ones wrestling, hoping, waiting. We pass salt. We pass stories. We pass grace between us without even noticing.
It will be quiet in places. A bit wittery in others. Someone will laugh too loudly. Someone will say something profound by accident. Someone will pour tea like it is a sacrament.

And somehow, mysteriously, it will be beautiful.
Ruth, dear wise Ruth, is very kindly curating this again. She does it with such understated devotion. If you can help, chopping, serving, setting up, clearing away, please let her know. Lent is always lovelier when shared labour turns into shared joy.

Everyone is invited.

Truly. Not just the confident. Not just the “sorted”. Not just the ones who feel they’ve done Lent properly. Come if your prayers are fiery. Come if they are barely embers. Come if you simply need to sit down for a while and be among friends.

This is not about impressing anyone.

It is about presence.
It is about bread.
It is about belonging.
And in a small, radiant way, it is about Christ in our midst, unshowy and utterly real.
We would love to see you there.