Dinner, with a side-order of community

Fellowship is something a church community strives to achieve. It's defined as having a friendly relationship and sense of companionship among a group of people, and, in this particular instance, a parish.

It's a sense of community that church members Deb Brewer and Doug Sikes hope for by hosting monthly community dinners within their respective parishes.

Sikes is a church elder at The Church at Morley in Morley, Missouri, and has been with the church since its founding in 2001. When the church moved to a new location about a year ago -- to the former Morley Masonic Lodge at 112 Kirkwood St. -- Sikes realized more could be done with the building.

Robert Perkins flips a burger while grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for the town dinner at The Church at Morley. (Laura Simon)

"It has this great big dining room downstairs and a commercial kitchen, and we felt kind of guilty for not using it," Sikes said. "I mean if the Lord was giving it to us, you use what you have, be good stewards of the assets that God's given you, so we thought, 'What can we do with that?'"

The parishioners of the nondenominational Church of Morley in February began hosting a free dinner the first Saturday of each month, and since then, Sikes said, they strive to make-home cooked meals each month; the menus have included lasagna, Mexican chicken casserole, meatloaf and most recently, hamburgers.

About 40 people attend the dinners each month with the number constantly rising. Sikes attributes the increase to the open environment the parishioners try to provide.

"A lot of the good folks from the Baptist church have been coming over and hanging out with us, from the Church of God, and we like that, and there's some folks that don't go to church at all who come around, and either crowd is fine with me," said Sikes, who refers to a church's demonination as a "brand."

"We're not restricted by any brand names or anything. The only brand name we have is Jesus, so that leaves us the liberty to have anybody come in here. We don't have any brand conflicts going on, and I think others have sensed that they can come here and just hang out," he said.

Morley native Carolyn Wells was visiting the Church at Morley for the first time in June, and was very happy with the meal.

She said the food was good, the people we're all nice, and she was happy to see all the faces of friends whom she hasn't visited with in quite a while.

Brewer, the meal coordinator at the Christ Episcopal Church at 101 N. Fountain St. in Cape Girardeau, says that seeing friends and meeting new people is also her favorite part of hosting a free monthly meal.

"A lot of the people have been coming practically since we first started doing this, so they're like old friends," she said. "We find out things about them, when they get married or have babies or have a grandbaby, so that's nice, because that's the whole idea," Brewer said.

The town dinner at The Church at Morley. (Laura Simon)

The Red Door Church, as it's commonly known, began its meals almost six years ago, after priest Bob Towner joined the ministry. Brewer said church members decided about that time to keep the parish in its current location instead of moving to the west side of Cape Girardeau, and, by doing so, they have been able to impact more people locally.

"The dinners were sort of born under that [decision to stay], a way to get a fellowship in the neighborhood, a way to help people who may need a good meal once in a while, that don't have a lot of home cooking," Brewer said.

They host the meal at the church at 4:30 p.m. the last Sunday of each month.

"We have ... 60 to 80 people that come, sometimes it will be a little less, and sometimes there's a whole lot more. It just depends," Brewer said. "We try to let people know, like the Salvation Army; they feed people lunch the week before our Sunday dinner every month."

Brewer and Sikes agree the dinners would not be possible without the help of dedicated parishioners, whether it's cooking, cleaning or donating the food. They're both very proud of their faith-filled community.

smaue@semissourian.com

388-3644

pertinent addresses:

112 Kirkwood St., Morley, Missouri

101 N. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, Missouri