The Rector’s Lunch has been a part of parish life and one of the parish missions of St. Paul’s Church since the summer of 2007. The only advertisement it has ever posted remains at the church porch, announcing the weekly time—and an invitation with the words, “There is such a thing as a Free Lunch! No cost. No sermons. No strings attached.” But the word has gotten around. In fact, the rector of St. Paul’s is hardly the centre of the Rector’s Lunch, though he treasures the seat he is guaranteed as its host, every Wednesday at noon in the church, just after the ‘firing of the noon gun’ on Citadel Hill above St. Paul’s. During COVID, our lunches have been ‘take-out’.
St. Paul’s understands and enjoys food as a gift of God for the world, and the parish life as centred on divine hospitality. And its rector loves moving on a Wednesday from the Christian Communion Table at 11:00 a.m. to the Table of Human Fellowship at noon, and back again the following week. But it is the parishioners of St. Paul that provide the dining room and wash up after—parish volunteers make the lunch’s gourmet soups, purchase its deli sandwiches, and bake five-star desserts.
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13.2 (KJV) Angel or not, contributor, lunch volunteer, or guest, we invite you to join us, in person or in any other way, the first Wednesday you can.
Paul Friesen, Rector