On Sunday, November 2, from 6:00-8:00, there will be a student-led worship service and dinner. One of the students who is organizing this service explains:
I am Keith Bufford, a student at UTS. One facet I have come to enjoy at the seminary is getting the opportunity to talk with my fellow students about their classes and reading and discussing their research with them.
A few months ago I had one such meeting with my friend and colleague Ray Lu—little did I know that our meeting would lead me on a great and wonderful adventure into ministry. Words of advice: if you are content with a peaceful, uneventful life, beware of wizards who come knocking for a visit.
Ray had been doing research for an independent study on worship. His research turned up a point of interest for him and me. Ray had discovered that early on in church history, the first hundred years or so before the Eucharist had been institutionalized in the way we know it, it was celebrated as part of a meal known as a love feast, or table fellowship. Ray had also turned up another piece of attention-grabbing information about the Jewish meal time protocol: the host of the meal would start with the breaking of the bread and end the meal with a cup of wine, we see our Lord doing just that at the last supper.
Ray thought it would be interesting to celebrate communion in just that way. But wondered how it could be done. Hours of endless dialogue followed, until we decided to put our money where our month was. We planned a service where table fellowship could be celebrated. Next we pitched it to Drs. Cuffey, Thomas, and Green with the idea of a student-lead worship service for the fall semester. To our delight the idea was met with the approval of the three. So we set the date November 2nd 2014, and we are inviting the entire UTS community.
What should you expect when you come to the service? A time of worship with prayer, scripture reading, a sermon, and worshipful music. The worship service will continue into a dinner. We will begin our meal with the breaking of the bread as was done in the past, and as it is the broken body of Christ that has brought us all together. We will continue with a meal of chili made by volunteers. Our fall worship service will conclude with the cup of Christ, as it is in the cup we go our separate ways free from our sin, with our eyes set on the glorious future Christ has promised us. I hope to see you all there so we may share Christ together! If you are interested in joining us, please RSVP to Dr. Green mgreen@urbanatheologicalseminary.org
