Calvin's coffee house will be serving a new flavor beginning this November, but it's jazz, not java - and jazz worship, at that. The new flavor is a blend of prayer, jazz, scripture, and poetry called Jazz Vespers.

The first Jazz Vespers service will take place on Nov. 15 at 9:00 p.m. in the Fish House. Once Jazz Vespers gets going, it will happen weekly on Thursday evenings, with each week alternating on-campus and off-campus.

When held at Calvin, Jazz Vespers will be a mix of the traditional evening prayer, jazz performance, and students reading poetry in a coffee house type of atmosphere.

``The poetry will express where the students are at emotionally and spiritually and will relate to a certain theme like `home,' `hopelessness,' or `wandering,''' said Josh Hoekwater, student leader of Jazz Vespers. ``We are confident that the Holy Spirit will do a lot.''

According to Rev. Ron Rienstra, L.O.F.T coordinator, Jazz Vespers may help to fill in the gaps for students who have trouble relating to L.O.F.T., Bible studies, and chapel services.

``People are at all different stages in their spiritual lives, and there are a lot of people for whom L.O.F.T. and daily chapel don't work,'' said Rienstra. ``And that's okay. Maybe this will. I'm really excited about it.''

A group of nearly 10 students, led by Hoekwater, will put Jazz Vespers together each week. The group includes musicians, planners, an assistant, and jazz pianist Daniel Richardson. Other students are welcome to become part of the group, according to Hoekwater.

Hoekwater points to one of the first Jazz Vespers ministries that started in New York City at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in 1965 for inspiration. According to Dale Lind, pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Jazz Ministry has given musicians opportunities to communicate with God through the music they feel in an atmosphere of love, understanding and acceptance.

Jazz Vespers emerged as a synthesis of traditions, a blending of an age-old liturgy with the unique musical language called jazz, according to an organization called Jazz Ministry in the Church. It suggests that with a freshness that is open to God's Spirit, this musical tradition sounds the hopes, dreams, joys, frustrations and pain that expresses human experience, while exploring a musical vocabulary that transcends the limits of the written or spoken word.

Asked once if he was concerned that jazz might attract a wayward, night-clubbing crowd to church, Pastor Gensel, the founder of Jazz Vespers in New York City, said, ``That'sthe kind we want. The good ones can stay at home.''