We Gather at This Table. Anna V. Ostenso Moore

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      We Gather at

      This Table

      We Gather at

      This Table

      Anna V. Ostenso Moore

      Illustrations by Peter Krueger

      Copyright © 2020 by Anna V. Ostenso Moore

      Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Peter Krueger

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

      system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

      including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission

      of the publisher.

      Church Publishing

      19 East 34th Street

      New York, NY 10016

      www.churchpublishing.org

      Cover design and typeset by: Beth Oberholtzer

      A record of this book is available from the Library of Congress.

      ISBN -13: 9781640652521 (Hardcover)

      ISBN -13: 9781640652538 (ebook)

      To Navy Jane, Wallace Carl, and Wrigley Brian

      with love and wonder

      —Anna

      To Amy Jensen, Carol Jensen,

      and Molly Schaaf

      —Peter

      Presented to

      From

      On the occasion of

      Date

      Beloved Child of God,

      We gather at this table

      with family, strangers, friends, and neighbors,

      with prayer, Sacred Stories, songs, peace, and our gifts,

      with joy, doubt, questions, wonder—

      all of ourselves.

      We gather to share this bread and wine.

      We bless this bread

      as Jesus did, spending one last night with friends—

      eating, teaching, celebrating, remembering.

      We break this bread

      to remember

      God with us, seen and unseen:

      Creator creating and loving,

      Jesus holding, healing,

      praying, proclaiming, defying,

      Holy Spirit dancing

      in our midst.

      We eat this bread

      to hope for a holy moment of

      harmony and unity

      in the brokenness of our humanity.

      We drink this wine

      to share the Sacred Story,

      to embrace holy mystery