March 9, 2005
Churches offer food, faith, fellowship
Area churches serve fish dinners, soup and salad suppers during 40 days of Lent
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
A shared weekly meal during the 40 days of Lent offers food, faith and fellowship for many area residents.
Each Catholic Church in the area offers one meal per week cooked and served by volunteers during Lent. The ecumenical group Church Women United hosts Community Lenten Luncheons every Thursday at The Presbyterian Church.
The Rev. James Hayden of Immaculate Conception Church said the shared meals during Lent provide attendees both physical and spiritual sustenance. Besides helping parishioners avoid meat on Fridays during Lent, the dinners provide fellowship and build community.
After a shared meal cooked by members of the Men's Club at the church, attendees celebrate the Stations of the Cross and Benediction.
"All of us [Catholics] here in the Grand Traverse area are celebrating Lent, the Holy Week and Easter Sunday together," noted Hayden of the five Traverse City parishes. "I think we all reflect on our relationship with the Lord and one another and our journey to eternal life that we believe in as Christians."
A simple meal without meat is also meant to encourage the faithful to think of the poor and less fortunate around the world.
"This reminds me of other people who don't have as much," said Ryan Fiebing, a freshman at St. Francis High School volunteering at the Lenten suppers as part of his school's required community service hours.
St. Patrick's Catholic Church offers an evening soup supper on Wednesdays after Mass; the church is not offering it this week, March 9, but resumes the following Wednesday with the last one during Lent. For the past five years, volunteers have made the soup each week and for approximately 100 attendees a week.
Since 2000, Christ the King Catholic Church has hosted a fish bake every Friday evening during Lent. The meal runs from 5-7 p.m. and is followed by the Stations of the Cross at 7. About 100 people attend each week during the six sessions.
A smaller parish, St. Joseph Church in Mapleton on Old Mission Peninsula has a soup and salad supper on Tuesday nights before Lenten devotions at 7. The meal is served at 6 in the church's Religious Education Center, adjacent to the church on Center Road.
"We started last year and the goal is to get people out to communicate and be together, then go to the church for Lenten devotions," said Mary Lardie, parish secretary, noting that 45-50 people attend every week.
St. Francis Catholic Church has been offering a weekly soup and salad supper on Friday evenings for "years" said Sister Katherine Murphy, estimating at least 15. She taps parishioners to make the soup, some making it at the church and others at home, while attendees bring salads to share. Attendance ranges between 70-80 for supper, which is from 6:30-7:30 p.m. and followed by the Stations of the Cross and confession.
"I think it is a good community builder among the parishioners," said Sister Katherine.
Church Women United has hosted Community Lenten Luncheons since 1980, for years holding them at the Grace Episcopal Church. This year, they moved to The Presbyterian Church because of Grace Episcopal's renovations.
These ecumenical luncheons are open to all denominations and feature a different speaker each week, usually a pastor from a local church. The group provides soup, sandwich, dessert and beverage on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. for $3, a price unchanged for years. Church Women United members make the soup while different churches provide sandwiches and desserts each week.
"Church Women United is a racially, culturally, theologically inclusive women's grass roots movement that represents 25 million Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christian women," said Sister Katherine, noting that Traverse City had one of 1,200 chapters in the United States and Puerto Rico.