A place at the table by Miranda Harris and Jo Swinney  

'An extraordinary book, calling for Christians to embrace the practice of hospitality—which can be simpler and more profound than is often imagined' 

A place at the table: Faith, hope and hospitality
By Miranda Harris and Jo Swinney
Hodder and Stoughton
ISBN: 978-1-529-39205-0 
Reviewed by Sue Clements-Jewery

It would appear that we are in a season where the table and its symbolism and significance are very much in the thinking of preachers and writers. The first book written in 2019 by Paul Bayes as Bishop of Liverpool offers a radical new vision of the Church as a table, built by Jesus the carpenter and stretching down every street and into every home. At this table, everyone sits, eats, worships, agrees, and disagrees together, as equals. Hospitality and justice are side by side.

This year’s Baptists Together president, Hayley Young, has been on a similar track with her emphasis on building a bigger table.

A place at the table is an extraordinary book, presented as being co-authored by a mother (Miranda Harris) and her daughter (Jo Swinney). However, we quickly learn that it is Jo who has compiled the book, using extracts from Miranda’s diary and other writings, letters, notes, all hand written over many years.

Though ‘her book’ had been talked about in the family over the years, it was only after Miranda’s tragic death in a car crash in 2019 that Jo discovered it when clearing out her mother’s papers.

With the help of her father, David, she has chosen and edited the selections from Miranda’s writings. In 1983 both parents, moving to Portugal for 12 years with their four children, were the founders of the Christian charity A Rocha, a global family of conservation organisations working together for creation care which is now active in six continents. Miranda’s great gift was hospitality, her large table being the centrepiece in all the houses the family lived in, and her delight in serving appetising meals of responsibly sourced food an inspiration.

We are offered mother and daughter perspectives, the adult Jo, now a clergy spouse, mother and writer herself, adding her own contributions and being honest about the times when she as a child found the ‘open house approach’ difficult to cope with but also celebrating what she learned about hospitality from her mother. At intervals throughout the book Jo re-tells well known Bible stories in which food has a central place.

The book is structured around the progression of a meal with section headings Hunger, Preparation, Welcome, At the table, The clean up and the Forever Feast.

Post pandemic, in an age when loneliness and isolation have reached unprecedented levels, the book calls for Christians to embrace the practice of hospitality—which can be simpler and more profound than is often imagined.

Jo: 'Mum taught me everything I know about hospitality. To be hospitable doesn’t require culinary excellence or matching cutlery—it doesn’t even require a home of one's own; true hospitality offers a welcome into imperfection and messiness, a place to belong and be embraced.'

A heart warming and challenging read, hospitality being central and not just about the serving of refreshments! 
 

Sue Clements-Jewery is a church hospitality convenor