An Accordion Book About the Great Feast

Noell Rathbun-Cook of Storypath.com has been pushing The Greatest Table, by Michael J. Rosen, for use on World Communion Sunday. Yesterday I saw a copy of the book at the Union Presbyterian Seminary library. It really is rather special. For one thing it is an accordion book that opens up to nearly 12 feet in length. Each page tells about people eating together and is illustrated by a different well-known illustrator setting their scene in a different culture or eating place (see Patricia Polacco's beginning of the book above). It was originally written as a fund raiser for a hunger ministry. There is no mention of Communion in it, but it could not be a better match for Isaiah's great feast. Since that text appears on All Saints Day on November 1 of this year, I thought I'd mention it to you now while there is time to maybe get hold of a copy. ....

Now for the hard part. The book is out of print, but there are still copies available for anywhere from $15 to $80. Check out some of the dealers on bookfinder.com for starters and follow the treasure hunt from there. The folks at Ginter Park Church use The Greatest Table every year in worship, mainly on World Communion Sunday and insist that it is worth the investment. 

And, if you aren't able to spring for the original, what about creating your own accordion book with pictures your children draw of eating around the world? Imagine it spread across the front of the sanctuary as you read it a feasting Sunday or a Sunday focused on sharing.