Tag: church

“Hospitality connects us to a place, because while hospitality can happen pretty much anywhere, it has to happen somewhere.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.205

“Whereas the global market aims for efficiency and speed, Christian hospitality is content to wait, to take time, to apparently do nothing if need be, since the aim is to be in God’s abundant time of giving and receiving.”

– Elizabeth Newman quoted by C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.203

“A shared meal is characterized by vulnerability, social recognition, proximity and revelation.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.201

“The biographer of St. John the Almsgiver (ca. 550 – 616) said that the Patriarch of Alexandria upended traditional notions of power by calling the “poor and beggars” his “masters and helpers.” He even gave a double portion of alms to a man whom he knew to be a false beggar, saying, “perchance it is my Christ and He is making trial of me.” ”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.199

“In our slowness, we can be attentive to the needs that arise around us, recognizing them sometimes even before they are spoken.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.194

“If lack is the root of injustice, then gratitude is the root of justice.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.182

“Many Christians who oppose the teaching of evolution in school accept unquestioningly an economic Darwinism that exalts competition, scoffs at cooperation, and leaves for dead the slow and straggling wounded.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.158

“To lament is to come alongside those who grieve, to sit with them (literally and figuratively) in the silence and to recognize there that in God’s interconnected creation, their pain is our pain … To lament is not to offer words of comfort; it is not to try and fix the problem or to prevent it from ever happening again.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.115

“Nationalism is a shortcut around our call to be peacemakers.”

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison in Slow Church p.108