Crowded Table

I've been eating with my faith community most Sundays for the last ten years. Sometimes it's a potluck, sometimes a meal team takes a turn feeding everyone, sometimes we order food from a local business. We gather in a living room or a park to learn, discuss, and practice faith together, then we eat. Or sometimes it's dinner first, then the gathering. The food has always been an integral part of what we call church.

So I started building rituals around my own table at home. Maundy Thursday first. Then a monthly Friday night Sabbath ritual reimagined, which is the one I first named Crowded Table. The earliest Christians gathered in houses, around tables. It didn't look like church as we know it, but it was church.

Crowded Table is a designed evening. Ninety minutes around a beautifully set table: candle lighting, call-and-response liturgy, blessings spoken over each person, communion, a shared meal, and a closing prayer. Liturgy, questions, bread passed hand to hand. Someone holds the space, but no one presides.

Open to all genders. For people who are done performing certainty, and for anyone sitting on the edges of the tradition wondering if there's still a seat at the table.

This fall, Crowded Table went on the road.

Alongside the launch of Faithfully Dissident Daughters, I set tables in Raleigh, Portland, Orange County, and Austin. The thing that surprised and delighted me the most was the number of connections shared in a room that I assumed with be mostly filled with strangers. It made me remember that it's a small world, and that's a beautiful think.

Want a Crowded Table in your community?

Churches, retreats, book groups, a backyard full of friends: if you have people ready for this conversation, I’d love to come set the table with you. I’m booking 2027 dates now.