A Good Friday Love Feast

Recently I was pleased to learn that the Moravian church continues to practice lovefeasts, and that they traditionally do so on Good Friday.

A lovefeast service is dedicated to the ideal of Christian love, and is based on the agape feasts of the early church–you know, where the early Christians had all things in common and had their meals together every day.

The Moravian Church in North America describes the lovefeast this way:

The lovefeast of Apostolic times was resuscitated in its original simplicity by the Moravian Church in 1727. After the memorable celebration of the holy communion on August 13, seven groups of the participants continued to talk over the great spiritual blessing which they had experienced and were reluctant to separate and return to their own homes for the noonday meal. Count Zinzendorf, sensing the situation, sent them food from his manor house, and each group partook together, continuing in prayer, religious conversation, and the singing of hymns. This incident reminded Zinzendorf of the primitive agape, and the idea was fostered until lovefeasts became a custom in Moravian life.

Lovefeast services will serve coffee and a sweet bun (yum! coffee in church!) and involve a good deal of singing, and the goal of lovefeasts is the strengthening and celebrating harmony, goodwill, friendship, and unity while leaving behind old wrongs.

This sounds like a beautiful way to observe Good Friday. Tell me, what do you do?

{Have a blessed Easter weekend, dear readers! See you Monday!}