hall. Some coming out of cubi- cles up ahead of us as John walked slowly beside me so that I could manage myself in the low-heeled pumps. Every move- ment was slow; deliberately slow. John said nothing about how to walk or carry oneself; but it seemed perfectly natural to take everything slowly. The others were doing the same I noticed.

I also noticed that I felt no apprehension or uneasiness at be- ing among these Femina men. Perhaps dressing with John had taken the edge off my anxiety. It would be a different matter, I mused, if I had dressed alone and was now walking into the huge assembly room by myself to face the strange gathering there. But I wasn't alone; there was this camaraderie that seemed so contagious; a feeling of one- ness among men who weren't, as I considered it, merely in mas- querade; there was nothing to re- mind me of a costume ball or some affair where people wore every sort of thing; the sheer force of so much femininity manifested itself; and it was something I could feel with great intensity.

I wasn't nervous as we near- ed the door where several other church members waited patiently while John and I filed past. But inside the huge assembly room the first feelings of appre- hension took their effect. My knees weakened, and John be- side me seemed to sense it and be ready. "Mary and Beth are over there, come, we'll walk around to them. Just relax, take it slow, you're doing fine," he whispered.

The room itself, as I allow- ed my eyes to slowly focus on its vastness, and study only briefly the people gathered in the pews, was a scene of almost complete femininity. The fragrance made itself felt before the complete aura of the whole gathering came over me. Then I heard the low organ music; and then the mur- murs of soft voices; and just an occasional laugh, very low and happy in its ring of confidence. But my own confidence faded as my glance came upon Beth and Mary seated in the cen- ter of the pew John and I were approaching. Mary had apparent-

ly come to appreciate John's in- volvement in the Femina move- ment; in whatever extent this was. And she had conveyed this enthusiasm to Beth somehow. But how, really, would Beth react as I came down the aisle completely dressed as a woman and took a seat beside her?

The feeling at first was one of overwhelming solemnity; and immediately my mind raced backwards in time to the occa- sion of my being ordained into the Baptist ministry. But Beth on that occasion was seeing her husband in all the glory and es- teem of his manhood; the epi- tome of the patriarchal figure not as a woman much like her- self.

Of course, Beth was seeing John for the first time, too. Mo- mentarily my mind focused on this as I saw her surveying us both as we drew near. And, too, she had already seen the other men who had come in ahead of us and were now seated in the pews all around the section where Beth and Mary had taken seats.

"Well, we were almost ready to come after you two," Mary said as John stopped beside her and I slipped past to take my seat next to Beth. Both Mary and Beth were smiling.

"You look very nice, dear,'. Beth said gently, "much better than I, well lots better than I ex- pected" She took my hand as I sat down and glanced toward Mary and John. "And John," she said, "isn't he marvelous?" "I couldn't have through with this without him," I said, "he was, well - just mar- velous as you say."

gone

"Oh, I think this is so exci- ting, dear, so different than I had imagined when Mary told me about it," Beth said. "I just couldn't picture anything as, well as solemn and serious as this. And the way these men look, it's just, well, unbelievable.

Beth was talking low in def- erence to the religious like at- mosphere in the church; but I could still sense the utter sincer- ity in her tone; the way her blue eyes flashed enthusiastically; the way she held my hand so tightly. And I was stunned. Stunned

to realize how naturally Beth re- acted to the whole thing. Cer- tainly I had to weigh my own in- tense skepticism in a different light now. And in reflecting on it momentarily I had to consider that I was not thinking of the whole picture when I had first heard of The Church Of The Holy Femina; I was picturing just how one man would look dressed as a woman; how he might look grotesque; just a car- icature of a woman.

But Mary had obviously given Beth an entirely different impression in their talks about the church. She was seeing it as a tremendous, emotional pheno- mena; not one or even several men in feminine guise; but over a hundred, and in almost every case they were accompanied by their wives.

Glancing around I saw no children; perhaps there were some but I couldn't see any. This too, put a different complexion to the matter.

And now, definitely more relaxed, I could appreciate that the atmosphere wasn't entirely of a religious nature; not that it didn't reflect a certain theologi- cal aura, the pews, the way the huge room was designed, the ros- trum, which was devoid of any- thing that made you want to call it a pulpit; no it was indeed much more like a meeting that is held in a church only because a church is all that was available. The organ music, yes, but as I listened, I could see that it wasn't religious music, not even meditation music, just the soft, mood-type music that soothes but does not interfere with the total atmosphere of a gathering.

The music subsided and the soft conversations all over the as- sembly room quieted as Rever- end Vincent strod in from a side door and walked slowly up onto the platform. He was followed by two others, who were I was sure, men like himself, only they were dressed as was Reverend Vincent, in a conservative wo- man's suit, not tailored, but not a fashionable way. flashy in Beth whispered in my ear, saying, "He doesn't deliver a ser- mon as such, Mary said, only a brief invocation, sort of a poem,