With a Heart Open to All

​I'm proud of my colleague, Nancy Petty, whose groundbreaking ministry with Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina, is life-giving to people around the world. Since 2001, I’ve been grateful for our long and collaborative work as Pastor and Minister of Music. Several times our collaboration has resulted in music for worship.

One day in 2017, Nancy excitedly came into my office to share the words and melody of a short communion song she had created:

​As we come to the table of Love,
as we come to the table of Love,
we come with a heart open to all,
as we come to the table of Love.
​
In worship, Nancy’s pastoral call to the table always included the exclamation “All are welcome!” but a line in her new song clarified further: “…we come with a heart open to all.” With this single statement she expressed that no dogma or doctrine, spiritual experience, or age limit were requirements – that people of all faiths or none were sincerely invited to the table of Love - and that those who come must include others who are different from them.

Informed by her interfaith relationships, and inspired by the House of One in Berlin, Germany (an interfaith structure that houses a church, synagogue, and mosque under one roof), Nancy’s song symbolically and literally identified the communion table as a gathering place for everyone. By naming it a "table of Love," rather than using a specific divine or religious name, Nancy ensured that the song's language would not limit the unrestricted welcome she wished to convey. All who live in Love, whether through a lens of faith or morality, can gather at this table, and rally around its inclusive meaning.

While the song was fresh in her mind and voice, I transcribed the text as Nancy sang the tune into my phone's voice recorder. After harmonizing the melody and arranging a keyboard accompaniment, we taught the easy-to-learn refrain to our congregation, singing it as we moved to the table.

As I continued to reflect on the implications of Nancy’s refrain, two stanzas emerged:

Stanza 1: 
What is required to come to this table?
Who is allowed to share in its feast?
There is no limit, no hindrance, no boundary.
No one is labeled "most honored" or "least."
 
​Stanza 2:
Living as one, we join 'round this table.
Giving to all, we offer its feast.
Ever embracing, and never rejecting,
we keep this table a table of peace.

As We Come to the Table of Love may be sung as a short refrain or as a hymn with stanzas that may include a harmonic descant offered by choirs or instrumentalists. In addition to worship communion, it can also be sung around banquet tables at other meals. 

May this song of simplicity and depth encourage gatherings of Love with open hearts.

---

Recording and Preview Score: 

Available from LarryESchultz.com. 
​Usage permissions also available from ONE LICENSE.