By Donna Cornelius
On weekdays during Lent, Sidney Clapp and Cece Martin go to church dressed not in their Sunday best, but in chef’s jackets.
The two are this year’s chairwomen of Cathedral Church of the Advent’s Lenten Lunches. They wear their white jackets with purple embroidery for a practical purpose – to make it easy for volunteers to find them when they need them.
That’s no small thing; the Lenten Lunches project typically involves about 300 volunteers, including cooks, bakers, servers and cashiers. The lunches are served every weekday from Ash Wednesday through Maundy Thursday as part of Advent’s Lenten Noonday Preaching Series.
“We’ve been told we may be one of only two churches in the U.S. that does a daily Lenten lunch,” Martin said.
Both women said they love to cook, and Martin does some catering. The two had worked together as Lenten Lunches volunteers for the past five or six years, they said, adding that they prayed about taking on the demanding roles of chairwomen.
“We felt like it was our turn,” said Clapp, who lives in Mountain Brook.
Heading the Lenten Lunches program is no small task.
“We get here about 8 o’clock every morning and leave about 2:30,” Clapp said.
Martin said the job involves more than overseeing the food prep, cooking and lunch service.
“We have to order all the groceries,” she said. “There are sponsorships, public relations and marketing to deal with, too.”
Tradition Rules
Many Lenten Lunches dishes are made with time-honored recipes.
“Most of the menu has been in existence for years,” said Martin, who lives in Birmingham in English Village. “We’ve had homemade mayonnaise since the beginning. We’ve always had Advent’s tomato aspic – everyone loves it.”
Tradition is an integral part of the downtown Birmingham church, which was founded in 1872.
According to the church’s most recent cookbook, “Lenten Lunches: Recipes Past and Present,” the Lenten Noonday Preaching Series is the longest-running week-long Lenten preaching series in the United States. The earliest known weekday Lenten service at Advent was in 1908, the cookbook says.
The church’s first Lenten Lunches were fairly simple.
“It was a far more casual affair then – usually just soup and a turkey sandwich,” the cookbook says. “The volunteers would sit in the front pews to hear the speaker and then race downstairs to warm up the soup and assemble the sandwiches.”
In 1979, church members Betsy Rackley and Jean Tomlinson led a group to Memphis, Tennessee, to Calvary Episcopal Church, which at the time had hosted a successful luncheon program for more than 50 years. Advent started its lunches on Feb. 20, 1980.
You won’t find an early signature dish called the Plantation Sandwich – warm cornbread topped with sliced ham and chicken hash – on the menu today. But no one is likely to leave hungry since there are still plenty of favorite foods to choose from.
Pimento cheese and chicken salad sandwiches are always available. There’s a different soup every day, such as tomato basil, chicken and sausage gumbo, and Southern chicken chowder.
Each day’s menu features a different entrée, from Advent’s original chicken tetrazzini with broccoli salad and a yeast roll to Marvelous Meatloaf with a choice of two vegetables and cornbread.
Fairly recent additions to the menu include Lean Chicken Salad over romaine lettuce with walnuts and Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, made from one of Martin’s recipes.
Prices range from $10 for plates to $6 and $7 for soups and sandwiches. Tomato aspic and Bing cherry salad are $2 each.
Volunteers make homemade pies, cakes and meringues. Chocolate roulage is another sweet treat. This year, Elizabeth Sharman is overseeing the dessert-makers. Most desserts are $2 except for the meringue, which is $3.
Diners can eat at tables or go through an express line with a special menu. Lunches to go include a sandwich, chips, an apple and chocolates.
About 200 people are served each day, Clapp said. Ushers get a head count of those at the preaching service, which starts on weekdays at 12:05 p.m. The lunch line opens then, too, and lunch service ends at 1 p.m.
Attendance at Lenten Lunches usually increases as Easter nears, Clapp said.
“As Lent goes on, people in the downtown area become more familiar with us being here, and we start having more who come,” she said.
Lenten Lunches involve a church-wide effort, Clapp said.
“This ministry is so important to our church and is very much supported by the church staff and the clergy, not to mention the volunteers, who give tirelessly and freely of their time week after week, year after year,” she said. “Lenten Lunches could not survive without our volunteers and church staff.”
In addition to providing good food, Lenten Lunches has a charitable purpose. This year, proceeds will go to organizations that help women in crisis.
“This ministry is to bring people to our church – and to Christ,” Clapp said.
Lenten Lunches continues Monday through Friday through March 24.
Cathedral Church of the Advent is at 2017 Sixth Ave. North in Birmingham. A shuttle bus to the church is available from the parking lot of Shades Valley Presbyterian Church, 2305 Montevallo Road. The bus leaves each weekday of Lent at 11:30 a.m. and returns no later than 1:30 p.m.
For more information about the Lenten Noonday Preaching Series and Lenten Lunches, visit www.adventbirmingham.com.
