Religion

The first supper

About 30 diners at Palm Bay Cafe had a taste of praise after their buffet at a Monday Communion service.

ST. PETERSBURG - A stemmed glass of grape juice sat in the center of each table at the Palm Bay Cafe. A small stack of unleavened bread - actually matzah, most often associated with the Jewish celebration of Passover - had been placed next to each glass.

Together, the unleavened bread and juice would serve as ritual objects in an unusual after-work weekday Communion service.

"Supper with the Holy Spirit" was the way the evening had been billed.

Prayer and song were to follow a simple buffet of salad, pasta, Swiss steak and rice.

This was no time to be constrained in worship, organizer Bruce Watters told the group of about 40 people gathered near Tropicana Field and within sight of a Winn Dixie supermarket.

Watters told his guests that he had been brought up Presbyterian and knows how reserved they can be.

"Most Presbyterians hardly ever get their hands above their waists unless it's to eat," he told the interdenominational crowd at the Palm Bay Cafe, 711 Third Ave. S.

But the small congregation of black and white worshipers needed little encouragement. They shouted alleluias and waved their hands as they prayed and sang during the inaugural Oct. 6 supper and service.

Ulysses Burden Jr., pastor of the Power for Living Ministry, 3604 Central Ave., attended the gathering with many members of his 3-year-old congregation. He liked the evening's format.

"It's informal. It's a fellowship that is not churchy. You get to eat. You get to relax and you get to fellowship with others of the same faith," Burden said.

"I think it's Christian fellowship, but more than that, I like to be around where I feel like the Holy Spirit is," said Larry Kincaid, a member of Pinellas Park Wesleyan Church.

"There is an intimacy formed when we eat together. I just hope that it will develop and that we will draw the unsaved and also, if I can use the expression, lukewarm Christians."

The Monday night supper service, which cost $10 for the meal, is yet another venture into ministry by Watters, a well-known Beach Drive jeweler, and his wife, Pat. For several years, they have been holding intercessory prayer gatherings at their Northeast St. Petersburg home. Until recently, Watters had been holding services on Sunday afternoons at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 4201 Sixth St. S. When those services stopped recently, he decided to alternate his house gatherings, held on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, with the supper service.

The occasion, he said, would serve as a women's night out, when they wouldn't have to cook. It also would be a good way to start the work week.

"Everybody says Monday is such a bad day. It's a different day of the week and the concept of breaking bread together was good," he said.

"I was particularly pleased with the number of people for the start up," said Watters, adding that 30 people had responded for this week's supper.

Ed Moorehead, gas station supervisor at Bob Lee's Tire Co. on Fourth Street N, was among those who attended the first gathering. Moorehead, who had a stroke in September, arrived pushing a walker. There was a promise that at a later time he would give his testimony about how God saved his life in 1981, when he fell under a barge and was almost crushed. Invisible hands pulled him back on board, Moorehead says.

Moorehead came seeking prayers for his recent illness. Watters, Burden, who is his pastor, and others present that night surrounded him, laid hands on him and prayed fervently. He felt the power of their prayers, said Moorehead, 57.

"Everything came back, what I was doing and what took place" before the stroke, he said.

Moorehead, who was accompanied by his wife, Mary, said he has been attending meetings at the Watters' home. Bruce Watters quickly went to his side when he learned of his stroke, he added.

"As soon as he found out, he came to hospital and anointed me," Moorehead said.

Watters, a member of First Presbyterian Church on Beach Drive, is not an ordained minister, but says preaching and offering prayers for healing are important to him.

"God said go out into the world and preach the gospel, lay hands on the sick," he said, adding he would like to conduct healing services at churches on weekends.

Besides making time for his ministry, Watters is president of the St. Petersburg Sunrise Rotary Club and chaplain of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, of which he is a past commodore. An ardent admirer of evangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn, at one time he volunteered with the ministry. He said he received the gift of the Holy Spirit about 12 years ago through the Hinn ministry.

For his first Monday supper service, Watters set up a temporary altar. He covered it with white lace and stood a cross on it. Just before 7 p.m., he lit the altar candles.

"It is my desire," he told the group that evening, "that none of you leave this place the same you came in."

Supper With the Holy Spirit

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