The tables decked out in checkered cloths are set. The candles are lit. As coffee brews, people hug each other in greeting, like long-lost cousins. A makeshift stage sports a large paper heart, and musicians perform Puff the Magic Dragon.
No, it's not a '60s love-in revival. It's the monthly Coffee House at Good Shepherd Lutheran, Raleigh, N.C., an evening-out for church and community members, including residents of a nearby Lutheran group home and other developmentally delayed adults.
"It's like a party, a party for God," says parishioner Nicole Barefoot, one of the group-home regulars.
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