Lauren Winner's Thoughts on Food

In response to this week's topic of "Food:Eating with Jesus," I looked up the author of one of our previous studies, Lauren Winner, and found a wonderful excerpt from her book Wearing God, which was published last spring. You can read the excerpt titled "Bread" here: http://imagejournal.org/article/bread/.  Winner begins with an exploration of God's concern for food and continues with the history of white bread, the meaning of fried chicken in the African American community, and the development of eating disorders.

"It would not be a gross exaggeration to say that the Bible is a culinary manual, concerned from start to finish with how to eat, what to eat, when to eat. Food is the first way the Bible shows the God intends to provide for humanity. ... And food is the shorthand for our disobedience..." 

I recommend the entire article. I am struck with how food is both entirely mundane and also so very infused with spiritual, cultural, and emotional meaning.

Who is Sara Miles?

The second session of Animate: Practices, Food: Eating with Jesus, is presented by Sara Miles.

From the Spark House website:

Sara Miles is a writer whose book Take This Bread tells the story of her "unexpected and inconvenient" conversion to Christianity, and how a mystical first experience of Holy Communion led her to organize hungry people to offer literally tons of free groceries at the altar each week, without conditions. She's the author of Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead, about unorthodox Christian communities built around actually doing these works of Jesus, and City of God, which looks at public worship through one Ash Wednesday as it unfolds in the streets of her city. 

Sara is Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, and the founder and director of The Food Pantry. She preaches and speaks widely around the country. 

Five fast facts:

1. Lives in San Francisco with her wife
2. Posts a daily bouquet made entirely from flowers grown in her backyard
3. Also grows figs, lemons, apples, apricots, plums, and blueberries—no vegetables
4. Used to work as a war correspondent, writing about revolutions, counter-revolutions, and post-Vietnam military doctrine
5. Devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe

You can learn more about Sara Miles at her website: http://www.saramiles.net/