Agape feast

Agape feasts originated in the early Church and were a time of fellowship for believers. The Eucharist used to be also present during the lovefeasts in the earliest times, although at some point, beginning in the latter 1st century AD and 250 AD, the Eucharist was separated from it. Thus, in modern retrievalist celebrations of the agape feasts tradition, terms such as "Lovefeast" refer to meals distinct from the Eucharist. Such lovefeasts, celebrated within the Eastern Orthodox tradition and also in pietistic traditions, seek to strengthen fraternal bonds between parishioners.

The practice of sharing an "agape" meal is mentioned in Jude 1:12 and has been said to be a "common meal of the early church". References to these communal meals are found in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 and in Saint Ignatius of Antioch's Letter to the Smyrnaeans, where the term agape is used, and in a letter from Pliny the Younger to Trajan, (ca. 111 AD) in which he reported that the Christians, after having met "on a stated day" in the early morning to "address a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity", would "reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal" later in the day. Similar communal meals are also mentioned in the Coptic tradition–often identified as the Apostolic tradition attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, who does not use the term agape–and in works of Tertullian, who does. The connection between such substantial meals and the Eucharist had virtually ceased by the time of Cyprian (who died 258 AD), when the Eucharist was celebrated with fasting in the morning and the agape in the evening. The Synod of Gangra in 340 AD makes mention of lovefeasts in relation to a heretic who had barred his followers from attending them.

Though still mentioned in the Quinisext Council of 692 AD, the agape meal fell into disuse soon after, except among the churches in Ethiopia and India. At the end of the 18th century, the Carmelite friar Paolino da San Bartolomeo reported that the ancient Saint Thomas Christians of India still celebrated the lovefeast, using their typical dish called appam. In addition, Radical Pietist groups originating in the eighteenth century, such as the Schwarzenau Brethren and the Moravian Church, celebrate the lovefeast. Methodist Churches also continue the practice.

Similar Christian communal meals have been revived or created more recently among other denominations, including Anglicanism, as well as the American house church movement. The modern lovefeast has often been used in ecumenical settings, such as between Methodists and Anglicans.

History

Early Christianity

The earliest reference to a meal of the type referred to as agape is in Paul the Apostle's First Epistle to the Corinthians, although the term can only be inferred vaguely from its prominence in 1 Cor 13. Many New Testament scholars hold that the Christians of Corinth met in the evening and had a common meal including sacramental action over bread and wine. 1 Corinthians 11:20–34 indicates that the rite was associated with participation in a meal of a more general character. It apparently involved a full meal, with the participants bringing their own food but eating in a common room. Perhaps predictably enough, it could at times deteriorate into merely an occasion for eating and drinking, or for ostentatious displays by the wealthier members of the community, as happened in Corinth, drawing the criticisms of Paul:

"I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?"

The term agape (ἀγάπη) is also used in reference to meals in Jude 1:12 and in a few manuscripts of 2 Peter 2:13.

Soon after the year 100 AD, Ignatius of Antioch refers to the agape feast. In Letter 97 to Trajan in 112 AD, Pliny the Younger mentions that Christians are known to assemble for a common meal which may be the agape meal: The rescheduling of the agape meal was triggered by Corinthian selfishness and gluttony. Tertullian too seems to write of these meals, though what he describes is not quite clear.

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–211/216 AD) distinguished so-called agape meals of luxurious character from the agape (love) "which the food that comes from Christ shows that we ought to partake of". Accusations of gross indecency were sometimes made against the more indulgent banquets. Referring to Clement of Alexandria's Stromata (III, 2), Philip Schaff commented: "The early disappearance of the Christian agapæ may probably be attributed to the terrible abuse of the word here referred to, by the licentious Carpocratians. The genuine agapæ were of apostolic origin (2 Pet. ii. 13; Jude 12), but were often abused by hypocrites, even under the apostolic eye (1 Corinthians 11:21). In the Gallican Church, a survival or relic of these feasts of charity is seen in the pain béni; and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church in the ἀντίδωρον (antidoron) or eulogiæ, also known as prosphora distributed to non-communicants at the close of the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist), from the loaf out of which the Lamb (Host) and other portions have been cut during the Liturgy of Preparation."

Augustine of Hippo also objected to meals in his native North Africa, typically in funerary or commemorative settings, in which some indulged to the point of drunkenness, and he distinguished them from proper celebration of the Eucharist: "Let us take the body of Christ in communion with those with whom we are forbidden to eat even the bread which sustains our bodies." He reports that even before the time of his stay in Milan, the custom had already been forbidden there.

Canons 27 and 28 of the Council of Laodicea (364) restricted the abuses of taking home part of the provisions and of holding the meals in churches. The Third Council of Carthage (393) and the Second Council of Orléans (541) reiterated the prohibition of feasting in churches, and the Trullan Council of 692 decreed that honey and milk were not to be offered on the altar (Canon 57), and that those who held love feasts in churches should be excommunicated (Canon 74).

The ancient Saint Thomas Christians of India continued to celebrate their agapa feasts, using their typical dish called appam.

Medieval Georgia

In the medieval Georgian Orthodox Church, the term agapi referred to a commemorative meal or distribution of victuals, offered to clergymen, the poor, or passers-by, accompanying the funeral service on the anniversary of the deceased. The permanent celebration of these meals was assured by legacies and foundations.

Reformation

After the Protestant Reformation there was a move amongst some groups of Christians to try to return to the practices of the New Testament Church. One such group was the Schwarzenau Brethren (1708) who counted a Love Feast consisting of feet washing, the agape meal, and the Eucharist among their "outward yet sacred" ordinances. Another was the Moravians led by Count Zinzendorf who adopted a form consisting of the sharing of a simple meal, and then testimonies or a devotional address were given and letters from missionaries read.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, travelled to America in the company of Moravians and greatly admired their faith and practice. After his conversion in 1738 he introduced the Love Feast to what became known as the Methodist movement. Due to the lack of ordained ministers within Methodism, the Love Feast took on a life of its own, as there were very few opportunities to take Holy Communion. As such, the Primitive Methodists celebrated the Love Feast, before it lessened in the nineteenth century as the revival cooled.