Think + Drink ! A trivia fundraising event on November 6th from 4-7 pm benefitting The Open Table! Join us for an evening of drinks, trivia, and raffle prizes! 

During this COVID-19 crisis, we are facing the unknown which is undoubtedly mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting. Yet, in the midst of this crisis, we have also seen incredible community emerge. People are reorienting what is most important to them as we realize that we need each other now more than ever.

The Open Table is an actively antiracist church, prioritizing multiracial leadership, participation, and cross-racial friendships. We strive to create the community of God’s people on earth– where all are equal, and will work to dismantle any system that oppresses, excludes, or divides. White supremacy dehumanizes people and prevents us from seeing the divine in others, so we are committed to doing racial justice work as individuals and as a church body. We acknowledge that white supremacy is the cause of the violent crimes and murders happening in the Black community, and we have witnessed this in our country over the course of the last few weeks, and prior.

You are welcome to move through the post below on your own, taking the time you need with the prayers, silence, music, and audio guided meditation. We do these contemplative services quarterly as a way of caring for ourselves.

Due to the COVID-19 and the most recent KCMO restriction on gatherings, we will be moving all our gatherings ONLINE throughout July. After this period, we will reevaluate and update our community on next steps.

At The Open Table, we recently began a new series entitled Embracing Our Whole Selves. To launch this new topic, we began with table conversations around equity, boundaries, self-care practices, and counter-cultural practices to care for ourselves, our community, and continue the work of justice in the world.

As part of this series, we wanted to offer up a subversive self-care resource list of free or affordable resources for people to use for their personal self-care practices. Find this resource below and share with those in your community.

2019 has been a wild ride for The Open Table. Five years ago, when The Open Table started, none of us could have ever imagined how healthy and vibrant this community would become. Over the course of these five years all of you helped shape the direction The Open Table is going, and many of you have led in various capacities to help ensure The Open Table stays the course. From facilitating dialogue at our gatherings to hitting the streets to ensure that justice is done, you all have helped to ensure that The Open Table continues to live deeper into its mission.

Why art as activism?

Through out history, art, poetry, and iconography have been at the center of these movements, if not the catalyst for the movement itself. As a community, we are engaging with local creatives on how they use creativity and talent to further social causes and bring new perspectives to each issue; all the while, asking ourselves how we, creatives or not, can engage with these various topics in new ways.

Our immigration series continued on 8/25, hearing from local organization Immigration Justice Advocacy Movement (IJAM). While AIRR (who we heard from in our first gathering of the immigration series) works with rapid response in regards to ICE and protection of families, IJAM stands alongside families facing deportation during the court process, accompaniment to hearings, housing assistance, and legal assistance.

The crisis at the US/Mexico border is hard to miss in the media these days. For many people, however, it is not an article you read online or hear on the radio, but a daily reality and deep fear that you and your loved ones might be separated all because of a piece of paper. Or a deep grief of not knowing when you and your family might be reunited, if at all. How will you pay the bills for your kids if detained? Who will feed your kids? Put them to sleep? Help them with their homework? These are daily fears that live inside the bodies of immigrants and their adjacent communities.

At a conference in 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King stated: “Burnout is a surrender… We have just so much strength in us. If we give and give, we have less and less and less–and after a while, a certain point, we’re so weak and worn, we hoist up the flag of surrender. We surrender to the worst side of ourselves, and then we display that to others. We surrender to self-pity and to spite and too morose self-preoccupation. If you want to call it depression or burnout, well, alright. If you want to call it the triumph of sin–when our goodness has been knocked out from under us, well, alright. Whatever we say or think, this is an arduous duty, doing this kind of work; to live out one’s idealism brings with its hazards.”

As we conclude this series on the divine feminine, the Open Table wanted to take an opportunity to let everyone delve deeper into the major themes covered throughout. For this evening, people at the gathering chose one major theme and take a second look in roundtable discussions. Various leaders within our community took the helm and facilitated these conversations.

For our series on the Sacred Feminine, we knew we needed to make space to talk about feminism, and how racism shows up within it. One biblical story offered us a lens through which to consider our topic.

The Genesis story of Sarah and Hagar shows two women struggling under the patriarchal system of the ancient Jewish tribes. Sarah, wife to Abraham, was part of the Jewish tribes. Hagar was of a different race, and also relegated to the level of concubine to Abraham. In one interpretation of this story, Sarah, in her effort to get ahead, betrayed Hagar rather than standing with her in solidarity. Sarah had Abraham send Hagar away into the desert with her son, which was a death sentence. Yet God shows up to ensure Hagar and her son Ishmael are cared for. This story is one of the more debated stories of the Hebrew Bible, and provided a rich theological framework for us to consider the intersectionality of feminism and racism.

Many would deny being racist, but our speech and actions can communicate a different message. For our third gathering in our series on race, we invited Rev. Jose Martinez to facilitate a conversation with The Open Table community about microaggression, and the ways our language and actions can perpetuate unhealthy narratives and racism. This series was designed to be a forum for truth-telling conversations held in community at the table together, featuring diverse voices from the greater Kansas City area. Rev. Martinez is an ordained minister for the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) and has coached church planters in our area on innovative missional expressions that are anti-racist and pro-reconciling. He is currently pastoring at Broadway Church in KCMO and serves as a chaplain in the Missouri Air National Guard and Truman Medical Center.

“Well behaved women rarely make history.” The same seems to be true for Biblical history as well. Biblical women, starting with Eve, rarely fit the meek and mild definition that patriarchal standards put forth. The Open Table, as part of the Sacred Feminine series, looked at the ways women have subverted patriarchal structures. The Open Table turned to one of its own to moderate. Cecilia Belser-Patton is the Kansas City Champions Organizer for Missouri Jobs With Justice, as well as a veteran educator, community activist and consultant, focusing on the issues of restorative practices, diversity, inclusion & equity. She is also a member of the Open Table antiracism cohort.

There are times in the Open Table when a reflection does not come close to capturing the essence of the evening much less offer something that is close to the depth of the live experience. This reflection will be one that falls into that category. Alex Kimball Williams joined the Open Table to explore aspects of First Nation or Native worldviews as they intersect with the Sacred Feminine.

The Gospel of John tells the story of Jesus sitting in the temple courts when a woman was brought to him by strict followers of the law. They accused her of adultery and demanded that she be stoned in accordance with the law of the time. Jesus wrote something on the ground and then said, “You who are sinless cast the first stone.” No one threw even the smallest of pebbles. They wanted Jesus to accuse and condemn her, but instead, he broke the law for her. It’s an affirmation of her humanity.

For the opening of The Open Table KC’s series on the Sacred Feminine, Eve and Mary, and the mythos around them became the focus. We discussed the harmful ways Eve is portrayed as a vixen and Mary as a virgin. To help folks unpack these archetypes, various images and icons of both women were distributed on each table, and people were encouraged to pick one that stood out to them. The story of Eve from Genesis and Mary’s Magnificat were read as the congregation pondered over the images.

“Maybe stories are just data with a soul.” Brene Brown’s statement came alive in our gathering this week as we shared our stories of what it feels like not to belong and what it means to belong to ourselves. This week Core Group member Garrett Brown and resident Tony Beyer shared with The Open Table some of the work of Brene Brown. Both come from a very different perspective on Dr. Brown’s work on vulnerability and yet, we find themselves in a very similar position: we find this body of work transformative. The amount of wisdom in Brene’ Brown’s cannon is vast but, for the night we took a snapshot look at “Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Walk Alone.”

Flannery O’Connor wrote, “There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored.”

There is something in the act of listening and telling stories that have the power to transform us. To tell our story requires vulnerability and courage and we saw both in abundance from our two speakers in our series on Breaking the Cycle of Violence. Two of the Open Tables Core Leadership Team, Micah and Amanda, took to the microphone to share their own experiences.