A Tea Party with Liturgical Formation and High Hilarity?
At the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Rock hill, South Carolina, the rector, Fr. Lucas Crossland, invited the altar guild for a tea party and, to everyone’s surprise, there was more than tea and friendly chitchat!
In my first cure, I had several conversations with members of the altar guild that followed a similar pattern. I would mention the meaning of an item used in the Eucharist, the burse, veil, pall, lavabo bowl, or purificator, and be met with a surprised response: "No one ever taught me that!"
These faithful parishioners had been serving the Church for years, sometimes decades. They knew how to prepare the altar beautifully and reverently. Yet many had never been taught the history, symbolism, or even the practical purpose of some of the items they handled every week.
It struck me that this was about more than altar guild training. It reflected a broader challenge in the Church: the need for ongoing Christian formation. So I began wondering how I might combine formation with fellowship.
One Saturday during the Easter season, I hosted a high tea for the altar guild. I invited everyone to dress up, wear fascinators, and bring their favorite teapot, cup, and saucer. I provided the tea and food.
The gathering was first and foremost an opportunity to express my gratitude for their ministry and to enjoy one another's company. But it was also an opportunity for formation.
We began with storytelling. I invited each person to share how they became involved in the altar guild. It was moving to hear story after story of women (this guild was all women) who had been invited into the ministry by older members of the parish. These mentors had taken younger women under their wing, teaching them the customs and practices of the guild. Now, many of those same women had become the elders, passing the tradition on to the next generation.
After the storytelling, I brought out the various items used in preparing for the Sunday Eucharist. For each item, I first asked the group to identify it and explain what they thought it was used for. The answers ranged from insightful to hilarious.
The funniest response came when one member confidently explained that the burse was designed to hold the priest's sermon notes.
As we laughed together, I explained the name of each item, its history, its practical purpose, which often came first historically, and its spiritual significance. What emerged was a deeper appreciation for the rich tradition embodied in even the smallest details of our worship.
More importantly, the exercise created space for questions. It allowed people to admit what they did not know without embarrassment. It transformed routine tasks into opportunities for deeper engagement with the liturgy.
Too often, we assume that because someone has served in a ministry for years, they already know everything there is to know about it. In reality, many faithful lay leaders are eager to learn more about the ministries they love. They simply need someone to invite them into the conversation.
The tea lasted only a few hours, but it changed the way the altar guild understood its work. Members left not merely knowing how to set the altar, but understanding more fully why they did what they did. They left feeling empowered as ministers of Christ and more connected to the worship they helped make possible.
I commend this quirky approach to any parish. Formation does not always require a classroom, a curriculum, or a lecture series. Sometimes it can happen over tea, scones, laughter, and a mistaken belief that the burse holds sermon notes.