rev. aisha ansano

I am one of the co-founders of Nourish, a Unitarian Universalist dinner church consultancy that offers a variety of services, from pre-packaged worship services to fully personalized, multi-service packages. We want to help Unitarian Universalists (and others!) spread connection, ritual, and an expansive sense of family in their communities, through worship services that nourish bodies and spirits through food and ritual.

I strongly believe that gathering over a meal is one of the best ways to build, strengthen, and deepen community. By cooking and eating together, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable in a way we often are not, and open ourselves and our communities to deeper and fuller connection. There is room at the table for everyone, and I want to make this literally true by helping to build community over worship and a meal.

I was first introduced to dinner church at St Lydia’s in Brooklyn, a Lutheran and Episcopal dinner church that I visited with a friend. Despite not knowing anyone, I immediately felt immediately welcomed and at home, and I wanted to help create a place where others could feel the same grounded in my Unitarian Universalist faith. I interned at Simple Church in Grafton, MA, spending my Thursdays cooking, baking, selling bread, and being in worship. I researched the anthropology, sociology, and theology of food, and interviewed the pastors of several dinner churches, eventually creating my own dinner church liturgy.

This dinner church liturgy invites participants into communal worship space together. We cook, set up, and clean up together. We sing simple songs, finding joy in raising our voices and not worrying about hitting the right notes. We have deep conversations sparked by readings and reflections, sharing our life experiences with one another. I’ve had the honor and joy of leading dinner church services in different settings with different groups of people, and look forward to continuing to share dinner church in new places with new people. I’m particularly excited to be planting a new dinner church community in Malden, MA. The details are still taking shape, with more information to come!

You can read some of my thoughts about dinner church on the Growing Unitarian Universalism blog.