THE TITLE of this article came from one of the 18 community consultations we’ve hosted since October 2021 with churches exploring the need for an Open Table community in their area.

During these meetings we ask people to share with another ‘a story of a time when you felt welcome, included, affirmed, empowered in a faith community’. Then we ask people to share with the whole group a word, phrase or image that sums up the qualities of that experience they would want to share with others if they host an Open Table community.

In the past year, we’ve spoken to around 250 people who gave us nearly 460 words in answer to this question. The word cloud you can see here is made up of those words. The more often we’ve heard the word, the larger it is. The phrase used in the title of this article was too good to condense into a single word so we let it speak for itself.

Contact us to find out how you might host an Open Table community, or read more about how you can support us.