"You're up to code, now, Reverend, and the refit should save you a packet this winter," Walter Thomas said.
"Thank you, Mr. Thomas," Reverend Dicks replied. "We like our members to be warm and comfortable. It's hard to open yourself to the Holy Spirit when you're shivering." He adjusted his glasses to take a final look at the bill.
"Amen to that," said the other man. "Did you think of getting your eyes fixed up? I had mine lasered after I quit football, and I don't miss my glasses a bit." He rubbed a hand through his hair, tight salt-and-pepper curls against his brown scalp.
"They'd told me I'd need the whole lens thing, and I guess I'm just a little old-fashioned that way," Reverend Dicks said. "Plus the congregation, well, they'd wonder if it was still me without the glasses. Gives a man to something to fiddle with, too." He adjusted his glasses again. "Looks good." He signed the bottom and handed it to Walter Thomas.
They shook hands.
"Would you and Delora like to join us for Friday dinner?" Reverend Dicks asked. "Dorothy particularly would like to see you both again."
"We'd be pleased to accept," Walter said. "Dinner, and after. Love thy neighbor, Henry?"
Reverend Dicks smiled. "Love thy neighbor, Walter," he replied. He walked Mr. Thomas to the door of the Hope Primitive Love Communion and gave him a friendly pat on the back as the other man left.
Henry Dicks stepped into the adjoining office and laid a hand on his wife's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that Walter and Delora will be joining us for dinner Friday," he said.
Dorothy rolled her shoulders and looked back at Henry. "Just dinner?"
Henry smiled. "No, dinner and after, for neighborly love."
"Praise be," Dorothy said. "I hope they'll decide to join the congregation."
"Dear one," Henry said, "Do we have any more church business, or are we free to go upstairs?"
"We're free to go upstairs just as soon as we take care of a few little things. Here you are." Dorothy's long, straight, silvering blonde hair, peasant dress, and LOVE pendant marked her unbroken preference for hippie style, just as when she'd gone back to the land in her early twenties.
Henry adjusted his glasses and looked through the papers. "David and Jonathan club. Hmm. Seems a little modern for us here in Hope."
"It's in the Bible," Dorothy said.
"Sure, but there's a David and Jonathan club at the church in Rosetta, just cross the county line," Henry said. "We have a fellow or two that might bend that way once in a while, but no call to make that part of our church. Next?"
"We have a request for a wedding," Dorothy said. "Two of our newer, that is younger members of the upper church."
"Eager to become full members as a couple, no doubt," Henry said. He looked at the paper, a handwritten note in the intended bride's joyous, loopy writing, then nodded and handed it back to Dorothy. "How are we on that date they're suggesting?"
"Should be fine," Dorothy said.
"Are they planning on bringing any guests not in the upper church?" he asked.
"No, she says that they're planning the reception for the next day, up in town," she said.
"Very good, we can plan to welcome them to matrimony with nothing held back," he said, smiling. "Is that what they want?"
Dorothy read from the letter, "'Just like my mom and dad's wedding', she says."
"Bless her," Henry said. "Put it on the calendar and let them know. I'll announce it at the next meeting. I wouldn't want anyone from the upper church to miss a wedding by being out of town the wrong day." He looked at the next paper. "World Neighbors Exchange." He smiled. "Yes, we're definitely participating. And contributing, as well."
"That's already in hand," Dorothy said. "They've given us a list of couples from churches that participate in neighborly love -- the countries they're from, and what practices they have at their local church, and what connections they're hoping to make."
"Very good." Henry looked at the list. "Look, this couple is from a Moslem group in Palestine."
"It's not just Christians in the exchange, Henry," Dorothy said, "it's any People of the Book practicing neighborly love. That Moslem couple, their group already had a neighborly love exchange with a Jewish group."
"Hm," Henry said, going down the list. What do you think of this couple?" he asked.
"I was thinking this one, actually," Dorothy said. "Because..."
Reverend Dicks and his wife went back and forth and eventually agreed on a couple to invite for an exchange visit and a second choice if the first couple couldn't make it.
"Hold on, this last one isn't church business," Henry said. "It's from Patience."
"Our daughter is church business because she wants a church wedding too," Dorothy said. "With Serafina."
"Hm, we don't really do that sort of thing here," Henry said.
"She has Mrs. Patterson on her side," Dorothy said. "And Serafina's parents have been fully part of the upper church for a year now. As you well know." Dorothy winked.
"Yes, I have known Serafina's mother with great joy and satisfaction," Henry said, "As you have known her father. All right, item of business for the next monthly meeting, then," he said, sighing. "I'll go with the sense of the congregation. All done?"
"All done," Dorothy said, rising from her chair.
"Do you feel the spirit?" Henry asked.
"I do," she said. "Let's go upstairs and make some joyful noise."
----
From here, follow one of their stories:
* Planning the parishioners' wedding
* Choosing an exchange visit couple
* Deciding on Patience and Serafina's wedding
or make up another choice, perhaps
* Getting together with Walter and Delora
* Going upstairs |