Feast Services — Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Feast services at Holy Cross in St. Louis are intended to be a “foretaste of the feast to come,” bringing people into the depth and richness of God’s promises by weaving the Divine Service together with the arts. Working with partner organization Intersect Arts Center, we curate services that thematically entwine visual arts, writing, and music in order to attune the created senses as we receive, digest, and respond to God’s gifts in Christ. We believe the Divine Service is a time when God comes to His people in lavish abundance. By providing a feast for the senses, we simply help unveil the reality that already exists.

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March 9 (date changed) at 4:00pm with a meal to follow.

3:00 Artist Talk prior to the service

This service will feature work from Allison Luce’s Serpent Tree series.

We will also have Allison’s work exhibiting in the Bridge House, and you can hear her give an artist talk before the service at 3:00. If you would like to attend, please register for the artist talk here. *Please note registration is not required for the service or the meal afterwards.

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If you are unable to attend the worship service and would like to watch online, please go to the Holy Cross YouTube page. The link is usually live five minutes before the service.

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2024 - 2025 Feast Service schedule:

March 9th, Lent 1, 4:00pm | Featuring work from Allison Luce’s series Serpent Tree

April 17th, Maundy Thursday, 7:00pm | Featuring work by Sara Nordling

April 18th, Good Friday, 7:00pm | Featuring work by Sara Nordling

April 20th, Easter, 10:30am with breakfast beforehand | Featuring work by Sara Nordling

June 1st, Trinity Sunday, 4:00pm with a meal to follow | Featuring The American Kantorei

Past FEAST SERVICEs:

JANUARY 12, 2024

Britt Sondreal, *Homescape 37,* *Homescape 2* and *Homescape 7*

DECEMBER 24, 2024

DECEMBER 1, 2024

*Weimar Altarpiece* (detail) by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Younger

OCTOBER 27, 2024

SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

Image : Isadore Michas, *Blood Red Orange* (detail)

JUNE 2, 2024

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 4:6

Image : Eugenia Sherman Brown, *Alone* (detail)

FEBRUARY 11, 2024

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 -

Temppeliaukio Church, “Church of the Rock,” Helsinki, Finland

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”
- Psalm 68:5 -

DECEMBER 24, 2022

“And they shall call His name Immanuel—God with us.”
- Matthew 1:23

Heads, Faces, Spiritual Encounter

DECEMBER 6, 2022

THE DINNER : 5:00 - 7:00
Join us Tuesday December 6th for a special Intersect Arts Center and Holy Cross collaborative evening that will combine our gallery Dovetail event series with our first midweek Advent service. This Dovetail culinary reception features Chef Juwan Rice, who will craft a 5 course menu in response to the artwork to be enjoyed throughout the gallery open house style from 5-7, alongside some theatrical performances by our neighbor church, Jefferson Avenue Mission.

THE CONCERT : 7:00 - 8:00
From 7-8 a unique Advent hymn festival at Holy Cross Lutheran Church will host organist James Marriott and Lutheran rapper Flame from 7-8 pm. This event is free and open to the public, but registration for the dinner is required. Donations are appreciated to support paying our chef, performing artists, and bringing high quality art and worship experiences to our neighborhood!

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
“Heads, Faces, Spiritual Encounter”
This national traveling exhibition from CIVA includes noted artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Mattise, Marc Chagall, Otto Dix, Georges Rouault, Giovanni Castiglione, Leonard Baskin, to self-taught artists such as Elder Anderson Johnson and Rodney Charles Hardee to anonymous African artists from Ife, Nigeria, and the Dan Peoples, this exhibition offers a thoughtful survey of the beauty, mystery, and Imago Dei in the human face.

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
- 1 John 3:1-3

OCTOBER 2, 2022

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
- 2 Timothy 1:7

SEPTEMBER 4, 2022

“Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” John 6:32

JUNE 26, 2022

Psalm 150:6

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

Featuring artwork by Melissa Gwyn, Sarah Bernhardt, Sedrick Huckaby, Shuna George, Delro Rosco, and Meena Matocha.

MARCH 6, 2022

Psalm 91:11-12

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Featuring artwork by Meena Matocha

Artist Meena Matocha writes about the series that will be featured in this service:

In Madeleine L’Engle’s book “Walking on Water” she presents the idea that artists are servants. They serve the artwork, understanding that the work knows more than the artist does of what it needs to be. I took on this posture when creating the piece Redemption of Ashes for my church, allowing it to be slow and meditative, progressing week to week. My intent with this piece was to let it walk the Lenten journey with us as we approached Easter. It was very much a personal journey but I was continually mindful of our community. The challenge, then, was to not allow myself to fall into thinking about the project as making something to please others, but rather to let our communal griefs and joys feed the work. I believe the Spirit allowed me to do this and it was such a powerful experience. The stories I heard and experienced together with my church community are poured into this piece. The painting is about my local church and also, ultimately, the church universal, as we lament and rejoice in our ashes, and walk in the redemption of the Light of Christ. This piece was the first I created using this process and it changed the way I make artwork. Traditionally an oil painter, making portraits and figure paintings, this piece freed me to bring in my spiritual practice and expression using different materials. They have evolved to include ashes, charcoal and soil…materials I feel convey both lament and joy in the human experience.