When a 7-year-old asked his parents (names withheld) if their neighbors were “bad people” because of the campaign signs in their yard, they did a double take. Then they tried something beyond a wordy explanation to share Jesus’ teaching on loving our neighbors.
With seed money from a raffle held by Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania (LAMPa), a member of the ELCA-affiliated state public policy office network, the couple hosted a Love Anyway Feast. Four of five invited households came to the family’s home to break bread. “It was a blessing to laugh and talk and eat together and to see each other as friends and not enemies,” said the mom, a member of an ELCA congregation.
Love Anyway Feasts, an initiative of Common Ground U.S.A., is an intentional campaign after election day to remind us of the power of community and offer an alternative to “us-and-them” politics. A step-by-step planning guide, conversation starters such as “What has given you hope lately?” and pairing up to find five things attendees have in common make it easy to try a new
approach to cultural messages that play into division.
“People are really hungry to be able to see each other as whole people again, but often we don’t know how,” said Erin Jones, an ELCA pastor and LAMPa communications and advocacy engagement manager. “[In meals with neighbors] the space is there to expand our sense of connection to God—to see and be seen in both our wholeness and brokenness, and delve deeper than the surface level.”
After a joint congregation council meeting, members of Grace (Manorville)/Emmanuel (Ford Heights) Lutheran Parish of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod stuck around for a Love Anyway Feast. The group started “thinking about how we can be a model of getting to know each other in our broader community,” said Eric Damon, pastor of the parish. “We had conversations we don’t normally have.”
