What if Christian worship took place as a conversation at a round table spread with elements of earth's gifts of nurture and beauty? This book describes such a practice--Roundtable Worship--and lays out a fresh and challenging theological foundation for it. Central to this foundation is the struggle to reconstruct the images of governance and justice that have always lain at the heart of a worship shaped by biblical traditions. Drawing on the practice of circle conversations at the heart of movements for reconciliation and restorative justice, Everett presents a theological vision rooted in biblical covenant-making, a social image of the Trinity, and an understanding of the church as "the covenanted public of Christ's Spirit." Roundtable worship provides a hospitable setting where people can begin to give deeper voice to their life, listen appreciatively to each other's longing for reconciliation, and anticipate in imagination and action a renewed public life beyond the angry and violent polarizations of our age.
William Johnson Everett has taught Christian social ethics in theological schools in the US, Germany, India, and South Africa. Many of his writings, including God’s Federal Republic (1987) and The Politics of Worship (1997), have focused on the relation of ethics to worship. His round communion tables can be found at Boston University and Yale Divinity School. He lives in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina and journals regularly at WilliamEverett.com.
“In Circling the Table, William Everett offers us an enriching banquet prepared over years of creative liturgical praxis, theological reflection, and a concern for social justice. His inviting us to join him in life-changing conversations around the Table reminds me of an ancient eucharistic practice that builds Spirit-filled community while dancing round the altar.”
—John W. de Gruchy, professor emeritus of Christian studies, University of Cape Town
“As a participant in Roundtable Worship, I have been invited regularly to find my quiet center, to listen to others in the circle, to speak when prodded by the Holy Spirit, and to share from places of vulnerability. In sacred community of table, meal, and fellowship, our group has prayed, sung, spoken, and given new life to acts of justice and hospitality within and beyond our own faith community.”
—Charlene P. Kammerer, retired bishop, The United Methodist Church
“William Everett has spent a long career coaxing the Christian community’s attention to the point of leverage where worship rites reflect on and address a wearisome world predicated on the violation of God’s good governance. His avocation as a crafter of round communion tables aligns with his passion for understanding how liturgy is a powerful force in unleashing the imagination needed for a flourishing public, toward the day ‘when all shall eat and be satisfied.’”
—Kenneth Sehested, author of In the Land of the Willing
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