Hospitality among Quakers

Marian McNichol considers the decline in hospitality

Try to make your home a place of loving friendship and enjoyment…

Advices & queries 26

When did you last invite someone new for a meal in your home? When did you last have an overnight guest you had never met before?
Offering hospitality, both a bed and food, is a core value in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions. The Old Testament provides a variety of examples where virtue is associated with offering hospitality and a failure to offer hospitality is punished. The New Testament starts with the hospitality of a stable and includes many more stories of Jesus and his disciples seeking food and shelter, including criticism because they dined with tax collectors. The parable of the wedding feast, where the initial guests refused the invitations, carries its powerful message because offering and accepting hospitality was perceived as an important social obligation.

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