Feasting on Hope: Sacraments, Trauma, and Formation in the Church (Hannah King) Ep. #217

Sep 11, 2025

Hannah King, an Anglican priest and author, shares her transformative journey into the significance of the Eucharist in Christian life. She dives into the Lord’s Supper as a crucial act of grace, not just a ritual. The conversation tackles profound themes such as the impact of trauma and healing through communion, and how it can serve the spiritually weary. Hannah engages with questions about the potential for rote practice in regular communion and emphasizes the Table as a center for community and hope amidst life's challenges.

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ADVICE

Enter Liturgy, Don’t Dismiss Repetition

Do treat repeated liturgy as an invitation to enter the gospel more deeply rather than rote performance.
Try using sensory, embodied practices to help people (and children) engage beyond thoughts and feelings.

INSIGHT

Repetition Frees Rather Than Deadens

Liturgy frees emotional pressure because worship belongs to something bigger than a single experience.
Repeating the same words lets Christians enter the gospel more deeply over time.

ADVICE

Lead From Word Into Table

Do structure worship as two movements: Word then Table, with the sermon culminating the Word.
Lead people from hearing into an embodied encounter with Jesus at the Eucharist.

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Is communion just a symbolic snack—or a mysterious, formative act of grace?

In this episode, Rev. Hannah King, an Anglican priest and author of the upcoming Feasting on a Hope: How God Sets a Table in the Wilderness, joins Dru Johnson to explore why the Lord’s Supper is essential for the Christian life.

Hannah shares her journey from evangelical church spaces into Anglicanism, unpacking how the Eucharist re-centered her understanding of salvation as bodily, communal, and ongoing. She shares deeply personal stories—of trauma, grief, and healing—that reveal how the sacrament offers more than information: it offers union with Christ.

Together, they tackle difficult questions: Will weekly communion become rote? Why is the Eucharist so often sidelined in modern worship? What do we gain when we treat the Table as the center, not the add-on? And how does this sacrament speak to survivors, children, skeptics, and the spiritually weary?
Hannah reminds us that even when we feel nothing, the Table is still doing its work. Like Sabbath and marriage, it shapes us slowly—but surely.

For more on Hannah's work:
https://www.hannahmillerking.com/

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Chapters:
00:00 Understanding Barriers to Worship
03:06 The Role of Liturgy in Worship
06:14 The Nature of Worship Experience
08:58 Structure of Anglican Worship
12:11 The Importance of the Eucharist
15:07 Embodied Faith and Redemption
22:21 Exploring the Nature of the Soul and Body
24:40 The Familial Nature of Faith and Community
26:20 The Dynamics of Church and Class
28:12 Rituals, Liturgy, and Their Impact on Worship
30:31 The Eucharist: A Meal of Fellowship and Equality
35:18 Embracing Mystery in the Lord's Supper
39:25 The Centrality of the Eucharist in Christian Worship