It’s Sunday morning and the faithful have gathered. Hometown Friends Church normally has three services on Sunday. Today there is only one. It’s not that the staff became holiday slackers. They were on duty last night for three back-to-back candle light services.

Hometown Friends has a balcony above the mail floor and both are full. I do a lot of people gazing today because there are people who normally attend the other two services and visitors from out of town—some I recognized and other I don’t. When it’s a special day and a new configuration of people, the service can take on the flavor of being a program. This feels like a real encounter with each other and with God even though it is sandwiched between family celebration of Christmas morning and the Christmas dinner.