Becca Seely, a member of this congregation, is pursuing a Master’s Degree at Yale Divinity School in New Haven. I have invited her to send us a brief reflection each month on her experiences there. This is the fifth installment.

Last weekend, some classmates and I traveled to Pr. Parsons’ alma mater, Union Theological Seminary, to attend a gathering called Lutherans In Diaspora. “In Diaspora” because we are outside the ELCA seminary system, Lutheran seminarians from Yale, Harvard, Union and Princeton get together once a year for fellowship, worship and learning. The gathering was informative and fun but the highlight was our worship service on Saturday afternoon. Instead of a standard ELW communion service, our worship was fully integrated with eating a midday meal. The service drew on ancient Christian practices of sharing a simple meal and prayer, Scripture and song around a table. The bread and wine were consecrated using a second century Eucharistic prayer that was likely used in a somewhat similar service long ago. The lovely and delicious worship experience was led by a young liturgist who has founded a “dinner church” called St. Lydia’s at Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish in the East Village. Participants cook and eat together every Sunday night because, according to their website, “we believe that Communion is made as we sit down at a table together to share food and share ourselves.” Praying, singing, sharing food and connecting to ancient traditions with others was a deeply moving
experience. All are welcome at St. Lydia’s on Sunday nights and I highly recommend that members of St. JME take the opportunity to visit. You can find out more at www.stlydias.org. Peace and blessings from seminary!

Becca Seely