There was a certain woman at Saint George’s who was very active in many ways but who was quite deliberately unfamiliar with the church kitchen.  She had grown up during an era when the role of women in the church was much more limited and as a matter of feminist principal had chosen to confine her own contributions to activities that did not involve cooking or washing dishes.  So she served on the Vestry and committees, sang in the choir, and volunteered in many ways, but never ever worked at fellowship events.  Then one day she received a telephone call from an elderly homebound woman who had been tasked with lining up cakes for the strawberry festival.  As usual she declined, giving the response which had always worked before, “I’m sorry, I don’t do that.”   This time, however, the petitioner on the phone didn’t take no for an answer.  “But you’re on my list,” the older woman said.  Despite repeated no’s she kept returning to the indisputable fact that the woman’s name was on her list of people to call to provide a cake for the festival.   Our feminist baked a cake (homemade and rather flat) for the strawberry festival, just that once. 

Not too many decades ago at Saint George’s the women’s circles (Peggy Steed, Margaret King, and others) provided all the labor for annual strawberry and apple harvest festivals, the pancake dinner, fund-raising bazaars, and more.  The women picked and prepared all the strawberries themselves.  In one exception, women and men began Advent (or maybe it was Lent) with separate prayer breakfasts on consecutive Sundays served by the opposite gender.   Festive mother-daughter banquets were held annually, and less often, father-son banquets, until someone finally noticed that not every adult had a child, or every child two parents.   During the 1960’s Cynthia Clark became the first woman to serve on the Vestry, and by the eighties the strict gender separation of duties had really begun to fray.  Today a few small groups provide separate fellowship for men and women, but the gender division of labor in the kitchen, worship, and leadership responsibilities is a thing of the past.   The Men’s group manages the Pancake Dinner and the Chili Cook-off.   Members of recent Life, Community, Faith classes sponsor festive coffee hours, engaging our newest members in the important ministry of hospitality. 

The coffee hours and fellowship events involving food remain an important part of our community life and it still takes a lot of volunteer labor to make them happen.  Food provided doesn’t have to be homemade, but someone needs to select and purchase it.  Someone needs to set up and clean up.  Someone needs to plan and prepare, and recruit volunteers. 

Are you on someone’s list?  When the call comes, will you say “yes”?  Or better yet, will you respond to an announcement in church or a notice in Dragon Bytes? And once you’ve seen how much fun it is, will you help organize an event?  Hospitality is an equal-opportunity job today!