When you eat together you can’t help but be friends! The Lakes Parish thought about this more than 20 years ago, when we decided to start up “Dinner for Eight” in our parish. The concept was simple: eight parishioners were grouped together by a co-ordinator. It didn’t matter if you were a couple or single, a man or a woman, old or young.

Eight of us got together in each other’s homes once every six weeks over a 12 month period.  We all took turns at being the “host”. The host made the main course, someone brought the bread, someone brought the entrée, someone else made dessert, or brought a bottle or some chocolates. Sometimes it was for lunch, sometimes for dinner, it could be weekend or weeknight. Sometimes it was a fancy dinner; sometimes we had a barbeque lunch; sometimes we all ate pizza from the box with our feet on the coffee table. After 12 months the groups were all swapped around and we did it all again.

When our two church communities were first twinned “Dinner for Eight” became a major ice breaker and many new friendships were forged.  It is so nice to go to Mass on the weekend now and see many familiar faces, and to know the story behind the faces. 

At times our “Dinner for Eight” became “Dinner for Fourteen” especially around Christmas time.  But then, who was counting! It has held us all together through the inevitable tough times. It was indeed an honour to be the host when a recently widowed parishioner decided to venture out socially for the first time since losing her husband.  We had all become her “family”.