THE HOSPITALITY OF GATHERING

            An assembly at worship is called to be one people, one community.  This collective worship is affected by the faith life of the people prior to gathering.  They bring those stories with them, but for this discussion we begin in the parking lot.   It can be sadly true that some of the best planning and practice for Sunday's Eucharist is undone by the lack of hospitality we experience before and after the liturgy. Here in the parking lot we begin the transition from sacrament of daily life, where we encounter Christ in the faces of those with whom we live and work, to sacrament of gathered community where we encounter Christ not only in word, in bread broken and wine poured out, but also in the faces of those with whom we worship.

            This is a return to our beginning Christian roots.  When we look at the best of our 2,000 years, we find that in the beginning gathering was strong and good.  We need to give it rebirth. 

            Our oldest ritual, even before Eucharist sharing, was gathering.  Christians gathered in upper rooms, in private homes, in their courtyards and often in basements.  These house churches developed into domus eccleasia where entire houses were converted into churches.  Because Christianity was an illegal religion, they usually met in the houses of wealthy Christians.  Then, the hospitality of gathered community for the meal was at the core of all Christian worship.           

            After Constantine became Christian in the 4th century and declared Christianity an official religion, the homes were not large enough. Christians continued to borrow spaces and adapt them to their evolving rituals.  Christian worship took over Roman basilicas and Greek temples.  This pulled the altar out of the center of worship and put it on or near the end wall.  When the small Greek temples were used, only certain people could even enter the sacred space. The rest worshipped in the exterior gathering spaces because the interior was so small.  This is also when emperial court style became infused in the ritual and hierarchy.

            Whereas the Domestic and the early Christian churches were out going, out growing and gathering, the medieval church turned inward.  The gathering space either moved gradually to the side and begin to fill with shrines and statuary and ultimately became meditative space, or it became the courtyards especially of the large churches.  For many, the worship space door now opened onto the Town Square.  The gathering space became public space instead of church social gathering. This remained basically true even into the modern area which began around 1760.  Then, many churches, like the people of the industrial revolution became functional, pragmatic, and logical in their approach to almost everything.  About the only places where lingering gathering was experienced were the lawns, porches and gardens of the rural churches.   

            Our new gathering space is also a transition space. This is a buffer zone between the often-chaotic pace of our lives and the peaceful promise of the worship space.  This space should encourage us to pause on our journey to be welcomed and to welcome others.  Hospitality is the offering of self.  It models the footwashing of Holy Thursday.  Movement through this space is not simply physical, but transfers our attention to the other members of the assembly and common prayer.  We greet friends here and strangers can be introduced.  We come to share and take up others crosses.  We need to be aware that by coming together we are joining others who got this invitation from Christ.  Marchita Mauck says, "This invitation is a life or death issue."  What kind of gathering space you have honors that significance.  Our hospitality needs to say; "If you weren't here, what we do would be diminished by your absence."  Hospitable buildings usually welcome instead if impress.

            Some may question what this domestic virtue of hospitality has to do with the practice of religion today.  The answer is everything!  We model our lives on that of Jesus who sat at table with sinners and called them to reconciliation through his gracious sharing of food and drink.  Jesus welcomed all with grace and warmth.  Elijah in his prophasies refers to Jesus constantly as “my servant”.  Jesus is still our guest and host, sometimes served but usually serving.  Christ is the ultimate host.  He is our food and drink. 

No less hospitality should be shown in our churches where we share this spiritual nourishment meal than in our homes when we share physical nourishment meals.  For the first Christians, the hospitality of the invited dinner guest was what their gathering was all about.  We need to think of all the things we do for good hospitality in our homes, and apply them to our worship.

            When we greet dinner guests as the door, we do not rush them immediately to the table and then usher them out as soon as dessert is finished.  The more important a social event is the more we need to gather before it.  Experience also tells us, that the more successful a social event is, the more we tend to linger after its end.  SUNDAY EUCHARIST IS THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL EVENT.  This act of ritual prayer is the ultimate socialization.  The bonding that comes from socialization helps make people feel worthy to be a part of the community.  All geography has its own spirituality, so if we touch other people who live where we worship, it helps us touch the land and gives us bearing.  This helps us know who we are. 

            Another issue of hospitality is the importance of being comfortable with each other.  If we are acquainted with the people around us, we participate more freely.  We are not self-conscious so we sing or respond without fear of judgment or criticism.   Such a comfort level discourages us from attending as spectators where we are simply isolated individuals at worship alone together.   Hospitality gives dignity to gathering.  Humans need a sense of belonging; the young adult generation cries for it.  Familiarity helps that belonging.

            Our exterior gathering is important, too.  We need to check the relation of parking to the doors we want people to use.  Do we hide churches behind parking lots?   Is that welcoming?  The main path should flow into the building; other paths should be minimized. These properly designed, clean, and adequately lit entry areas, sidewalks and parking lots bespeak a church that is attentive to the physical needs of it's people.  The smooth flow of foot traffic and a barrier free entrance tell us we are ALL welcome at this house of God's people.  If you are fortunate to have a lawn, outside tables and benches encourage socialization.  Well-planted hedges direct traffic and suggest gathering areas.  A plaza is the urban transition space and can be a wonderful gathering space in good weather.  Whatever the size, we should feel embraced by the landscaping as it gathers us in.  This incarnation of God enfolding us begins our preparation for our further encounter with God and the faces of God in the interior of the Church.  Gates draw and invite us and can be used inside as well as out.

            Exterior banners and/or flags add welcoming.  However, they should not clutter, but make a statement.  Bells are a great welcoming experience and aren't used often enough.

            The interior gathering space should be clearly related to the main worship space.  The gathering space should pull the assembly in, invite them to worship.  Hopefully, there is some mystery and that mystery unfolds gradually.  There should ideally be one main entrance to the worship space, but that entrance should not be the mystery.  The door and entry should summon and invite; the body of Christ anticipates and expects your presence.  There may be multiple entrances into the gathering space, so we need a sense of destination that unfolds before us.  However, gathering should be unmanipulated, not just passage to the door of the worship space. 

            Portals are essential imagery because they are thresholds.  Threshold promises something new.  It is a crossing, a liminal place.  Significant portals dignify what is on the other side, it says something of immeasurable value is beyond, that extraordinary things happen here.  Portals are another paradox of church.  They are both open and closed...open to gathering...closed to the world.  The gathering within is the same paradox.  The space is an open hallow inside yet the walls close around to enfold us.  The hardware on these portals is important.  It should be significant while remaining hospitable.  There should be unity between the gathering and worship space. 

            Ideally, the space is 1/3 the size of the worship space. This ampleness speaks of hospitality.  However, then you really must have hospitality to go with the ampleness or it can be intimidating.  Seasonal environments here should hint at what's waiting inside.  The gathering space is the place for art and artifacts.  It's welcoming and identifies what you are coming to.  The space should be clean and have warm sufficient light. Meaningful communication happens when you can clearly see faces.  Reverberate sound is not necessarily desirable so this can be an appropriate place for carpet or acoustical control.  If refreshments are to be served here, then other acoustical control measures can allow a hard surface floor.  Coffee counter closets are an asset.  Some type of seating, either chairs or benches encourages worshipers to linger after mass.   Tables for business or hospitality surface should be provided. .  These areas should not be cluttered.  Fireplaces occur occasionally.    Because written communication is needed, bulletin boards and bookracks should be clustered in an informational area.  Christians are continuing to appreciate the value of coat racks more and more.  When people take their coats off, it is a commitment to stay.  Gardens and greenery are always good imagery for lingering inside.

            There is another element that is continuing to emerge.  Cemeteries next to churches gave continuity with our stories, gave connectedness with the generations.  We are seeing cemeteries reconnecting with country churches.  Columbariums for the internment of ashes are entering the gathering and worship spaces or memorial gardens beside the church.  This reminds us we never gather alone, but that the saints always gather with us.  The bond of the Body of Christ is not broken with death.

            A hospitable gathering space should not be viewed as a luxury.  Many of our rites begin at the door, necessitating the collecting of the participants in the gathering space, and the rubrics for this are not whimsical.  At the door of the gathering space, we welcome infants to the church for the first time, greet the body of the deceased, surround the catechumens with prayer and song, welcome couples to the sacrament of holy matrimony, and assemble for major processions such as palm Sunday.  We kindle the Easter fire in the exterior gathering place.

            In some churches, this space is also overflow seating space.  Some have sound reinforcement and a glass wall separating the two spaces to allow it to be a "cry room".   It should be remembered that when there is a wall the sense of community with the other worshipers is lost. Therefore, if frequent use of the gathering space for overflow seating is anticipated, perhaps an open "wall” is an alternative to be explored.

            Greeters and ushers are ministers of hospitality.  The ushers are care givers and do not necessarily have the gift of greeting.  Ushers should not be pressured to be greeters unless they want to be. 

            The gathering song and the entry procession are also part of the gathering process.  The gathering song should intensify the unity of the assembly.  That song is not intended solely as processional music, but should also create an atmosphere of celebration.  Likewise, the procession itself is not just a way for the presider to get from "there" to "here".  The procession, led by the cross, is intended to gather attention and focus to the altar and ambo.

             The Eucharist then celebrated by the assembly does not occur in a vacuum untouched or unaffected by whether we smile at one another.  God doesn't need the church.  God needs the space for us, and this portal, this gathering space has long been understood as the place where the New Jerusalem assembles itself.  There is strength and collective wisdom in the community that comes together.  After worship, that community goes forth sustained by the multiple to do the work God gives each one, and is sent forth from the gathering place to do that work.

Reinhard May 2000