Tuesdays · 7 PM · 9 homes
Tables
Eight people, one host, one pot of something. Dinner and an honest hour of conversation in a living room somewhere between Inglewood and the Nations.
SUN7:30 PM
Every Sunday night · 711 Woodland St, East Nashville
Vesper · an evening church
Church after the brunch shift.
Most of us work the weekend: servers, nurses, session players, baristas, grad students on deadline. So we meet when the city winds down. Candles, a few old songs, a short sermon, bread and wine, and home by nine.
Sunday, 8:20 PM
Bread from the bakery on Fatherland Street, wine from a box. We've never pretended to be fancy.
Sunday nights
Seventy-five minutes in a borrowed sanctuary
We rent the 1920s sanctuary of Woodland Street Lutheran after its own congregation goes home. The lights stay low, the pews are hard, and the acoustics make an upright bass sound like a choir.
Every week has the same bones: an opening prayer, three or four songs, a reading, twenty minutes of preaching, communion, and a blessing for the week of work ahead. You can sit in the back and leave during the last song. People do.
- Doors at 7:00, start at 7:30, done by 8:45
- Communion every week, at the front or brought to your pew
- No kids' program; little ones welcome on laps
- Street parking on Woodland and the lot behind the hardware store
Roll 31
One Sunday night, start to finish
Shot on a borrowed film camera in September by June, who plays bass most weeks.
Key
- 17:20, the steps outside
- 27:35, the first song
- 38:30, prayer candles at the side altar
- 48:40, prayer for the week
- 58:50, someone stays behind
- 69:05, walking to tacos on Gallatin
Every face here said yes first. Want a frame taken down? Text the office.
The rest of the week
Small enough to fit around a shift
Nothing here takes more than one evening, and nothing needs a sign-up longer than your name.
Thursdays · 9 PM · 25 min
Compline
The old night prayer of the church, sung by candlelight in the side chapel. Then everyone goes to bed.
New every Monday
Listen
Last Sunday's sermon, plus a ten-minute evening prayer you can play on the drive home.
Any day
Talk to someone
A pastor for coffee, or a referral to a counselor who charges what you can pay.
Heard after a Sunday
I'd worked eleven doubles in a row. I sat in the back pew, didn't sing a word, took communion and cried in my car. Nobody asked me anything. I came back the next week anyway.
Coming up
On the calendar
Oct18
Sunday night: Psalm 4
7:30 PM · Sanctuary
Week three of 'Songs for the Night'. 'I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep.'
Oct23
Compline by candlelight
9:00 PM · Side chapel
Twenty-five minutes, sung. Arrive quietly, leave quietly.
Oct31
All Hallows' Eve Compline
9:00 PM · Side chapel
We read the names of people we've lost this year. Bring one if you'd like.
Nov10
New Tables start
7:00 PM · Nine homes
Six-week season. Seats go to whoever asks first.
Nov29
Friendsgiving after church
8:45 PM · Fellowship hall
For everyone who worked Thursday. Leftovers encouraged.
Nothing in that category this month.