Christian History Home > Issue 84 > Holy Ground
Holy Ground
One of the most visible practices among the American Anabaptists, the Brethren love feast exemplifies humility and community.
Frank Ramirez | posted 10/01/2004 12:00AM
When writer Phebe Gibbons caught a train to Lancaster County in 1871 to visit a Brethren love feast, she prepared herself to enter what she thought would be a strange world. As a reporter for a major magazine she intended to write about what would no doubt be an odd, perhaps even bizarre practice by an obscure religious sect.
What she experienced was the equivalent of a three-day slumber party.
Surprised by love
The love feast was quite different from other religious practices of the day. It stemmed from the peculiar theological synthesis of the Brethren—part Anabaptist, part Pietist, and fully determined to implement those ordinances that they found in Scripture as the result of joint Bible study.
Their reading of John's version of the Last Supper mandated both a full meal and a feetwashing service. John 13:14-15 indicated to the Brethren that Jesus had commanded they wash each other's feet. Moreover, the meal, therefore, did not precede or follow worship. It was worship, and was as essential ...
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