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The Open Table, a women-led Eucharistic community began gathering for monthly eucharists in Cape Town and in the Helderberg after Mary Ryan’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Womanpriest movement (RCWP) in September 2014. We started as a small group of friends and family but this has grown over the years to over 50 people, now in two small communities – one in Cape Town and one in Stellenbosch as outlined below.

We call ourselves a pilgrim community – the hallmark of our way/faith is one of ‘seeking, contemplation and transformation’ rather than clericalism and personal salvation. Knowing that the Spirit of God is a dynamic presence calling us ever into new places, we are never simply comfortable with being seekers in our world; we are deeply committed to the challenges of change and social justice in our community and in our everyday lives.

While drawing on our roots in the Catholic church and following the liturgical cycles of the year, our searching takes us into unchartered territory accompanied by the best of minds both Catholic and ecumenical, in a search for ways of understanding the Mystery of God at work in the cosmos, in our lives and in our world.

We welcome at our table all who seek a place of support and respite, without barriers towards those whose faith is rooted in other traditions, and regardless of sexual preference, race, class or marital status. And we seek to ‘create something new’ in the church and in the world, trusting that we have been called by the Holy Spirit within our communities to follow Jesus as our model of empowerment and generous service where we are.

From one community to three: Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Children’s ChurchIn Cape Town, the community meets happily at the Pinelands Methodist Church, welcomed by Rev. Ross Southern, where Rev. Sarah Rule presides

Even prior to her ordination as priest in 2021, Sarah Rule has been ministering to a community at Lynedoch in Stellenbosch. Lynedoch Eco Village has as its motto, “Soil, soul and society” and so the village neighbours are open to hosting various forms of spiritual gatherings.

In the dry and warmer months the Open Table in Lynedoch meets under the trees at the amphitheatre and on cool, wet days we gather in one of the rooms at the Sustainability Institute. Some villagers join us, as well as others from as far afield as Gordon’s Bay, Klapmuts and Cape Town.

We believe that children have an innate spirituality that can be articulated and nurtured through appropriate liturgy and language so, a new addition planned to start in January 2026 is our Children’s Church, to be ministered by Rev. Maryanne von Essen.