An Open Table

Come to the table

This is the table, not merely of the church, but of Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him,
and for those who want to love him more.

So come, whether you have much faith or little;
have tried to follow, or are afraid you’ve failed.

Come, because it is His will that those who want to meet him
might meet him here.

Each Sunday evening as we ready ourselves to share in communion, we use this invitation, adapted from one used in the Iona Community. It is a generously open invitation, and one that does not stipulate that a person needs to be baptized in order to come to the table. In fact, in our experience, people sometimes first engage (or maybe re-engage) this faith at the communion table, and only then come to a point where they wish to be baptized.

“The invitation . . . is to be prepared to leave behind all that encumbers us and to come to the communion table; perhaps even to come with all of our doubts, uncertainties and wrestlings; our beliefs and longings to believe; our oftentimes unarticulated hungers; and to experience there a release from that which binds us.”

This is an excerpt from our 2008 publication called Come to the Table: A reflection on the practice of open communion at saint benedict’s table. If you would like to read more in depth about why we practice open communion, you can download a PDF edition of Come to the Table.