Breaking Bread Before Breakfast

Sept. 23, 2008 -- Considering that college students are notorious for sleeping in after late nights studying (and socializing), who would actually turn up for a eucharist service at 7:22 on Tuesday mornings?

Simple: University of Toronto students who are serious about their faith and want to pray, worship, grow, and struggle with Jesus.

“Wine Before Breakfast,” which takes place each Tuesday in the chapel of Wycliffe College, currently attracts about 45 students every week. According to Dr. Brian Walsh, who leads the Home Missions-funded campus ministry at the University of Toronto, the 8-year-old event is an “innovative and creative” eucharist service filled with music, food, and prayer.

“We come together to break bread and drink wine, to feast on the Word of God through preaching and reading, to sing songs that span the history of hymnody from the classic hymns of the faith to the most contemporary sounds,” says Walsh, who also serves as an adjunct professor of theology of culture at Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology. “We come to pray together, for the world and for each other. And we come to be shaped into that radical community known as the body of Christ.”

Following each service, the students all gather in Walsh’s office to share a breakfast of homemade bread, muffins, and organic coffee. During this time, they enjoy in-depth discussions about that morning’s service and many other topics.

-Ben Van Houten, Christian Reformed Home Missions

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