Twenty's Plenty

After all the planning and preparation the day was finally here when we would launch our Afternoon Tea Service.
Our preparations had included the acquisition of several tea sets,
praying,
food hygiene training,
praying,
purchasing,
praying,
sandwich making
furniture moving,
table laying,
and cartoon printing.

Afternoon Tea Service is a Fresh Expressions of worship.
People are invited to afternoon tea, served using tea sets and to chat, with conversations inspired by the topic of the month. It was inspired by an article I saw on the diocesan website and adapted for our local context. A small liturgical element consisted of the Lord's Prayer and The Grace, which were said immediately before afternoon tea was served.

Our church lies empty and locked most of the time. This was an excellent opportunity to invite people into the building, particularly those who might not normally attend church.


As the first session was in September, just after the start of the new academic year, we encouraged our guests to reminisce about their school days:-
favourite teacher
favourite lesson
outstanding memories
school dinners
anything else to do with school.
To aid their discussions various school-themed cartoons were scattered on the tables.

We wanted to be able to welcome folks with dementia. Adapting the building to be dementia friendly would have required far more planning than we had time for, so we decided to wear coloured aprons to identify the helpers as a simple action we could take.
As our first session was looking back at our school days we decided to adopt the pink colour of the overalls worn by dinner ladies aka Pinkies. We also wore name badges.
Four of us posed for a photo before the session began.



A prayer station had been set up based on a school noticeboard
Prayers could be written on pieces of paper, cut up from pages from a school exercise book and then pinned to the noticeboard.
I forgot to mention the prayer station in my welcome.
Despite this, some prayers did make it on to the board.
In hindsight, I felt it was better not to mention the prayer station, but to leave folks to discover it and engage with it if they so chose to, rather than writing a prayer because they felt they ought.
The Prayer Station will change each time, reflecting the theme.

As it was our first session we had our thoughts as to how it might run, but we had no real idea how close reality would be to our plans.

I seemed to have spent weeks beforehand chatting to people, encouraging them to come.
Some were keen, others less so.
As the date approached, some of those who had received invitations began to make excuses, and it felt like the story of the banquet, in Luke 14:15-24, where the guests decline to attend a wedding banquet, immortalised in the song I cannot come.
I started to add up names on my list.
"How many are you expecting?"
"I am not certain. It will depend how well some feel on the day.  I have a figure of twenty in my mind. That would give us a real chance to find out how our plans work."
I didn't have twenty names, but still the figure twenty kept coming back to me. Was this false optimism?

DH watched with interest when I began my marathon sandwich-making session. I was on ham and cheese. He was rather surprised when I began chopping the crusts off, before cutting the sandwiches into finger shapes.
"Why are you doing that?"
"Posh sandwiches, dear!"
Mind you, I didn't chop the crusts off the slices of gluten-free bread - that stuff is far too expensive to feed to the birds!

Some arrived early, some just after the start, and one appeared a little later.
Part way through, I sat down and enjoy a quick coffee and sandwich in the middle of the plate and cup refilling. I counted heads.
Guess how many were there?
Yes, twenty!
Twenty was plenty for our first session.
Interestingly this included some I was expecting and some lovely surprises!

As a leaving present, we gave them all a simple school pencil, which amused them.
I had hoped to find exercise books like the ones I remembered from my school days, with the multiplication tables and weights and measures on the back, but I didn't manage to track down a supply at a price I was prepared to pay!

We had over-catered, but that was deliberate. We did not want to run out of wine food! Mind you, our guests had consumed an impressive amount of food and drink.

Now we have our first session under our belt, we shall take time to reflect on how the session ran.
Two teapots on the go would be a good idea, so that the tea pourer can stay at the table and chat and not feel guilty for lingering.
Putting coffee in the thermos jug, not just hot water, will speed up the coffee making.
The tea drinkers drank the urn dry, so we need to refill that earlier!

What colour will October be, and what will our theme be?
Wait and see!

Later DH and I reflected on how the session had gone.
"Next time, I think we will have plainer table clothes. The tea sets looked a bit lost against the bright green checks."
"Well, I never would have thought of picking the tablecloths to suit the crockery!" replied bemused husband.
Getting closer to thirty years of marriage, and he still has the ability to surprise me.