St. Frances Table, the dining room program that has been providing food for Atlanta's hungry and homeless on Saturdays since April, will mark an extraordinary Saturday in December.

The table began April 10, which was Holy Saturday, operating from the basement dining hall of Immaculate Conception Shrine and staffed by a core group from the parish conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The one-day-a-week outreach from the downtown parish, which supplemented a Monday-to-Friday lunch program at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, drew people from throughout the archdiocese who wanted to serve those in need. Then, in August, Immaculate Conception church was gutted by fire. Still, St. Francis Table was welcomed into new quarters at nearby Trinity United Methodist Church and the spirit of the program survived the fire.

In the midst of this Advent, which is marked by a special intensity for those working at St. Francis Table and awaiting the rebirth of their church home, there are plans for Christmas.

Back in the April days when St. Francis Table was new and early exuberance prevailed, everyone noticed that Christmas Day fell on a Saturday in 1982. Nine months later, after the sadness of the fire and the strengthening and testing of spirits in the week-in, week-out challenge of the project, a Christmas Day dinner will be served.

Some 45 turkeys are going to be cooked and served, with dressing, cranberry sauce, vegetables, pies and the trimmings, to those who are on the street or in need of food on Christmas Day.

A "glorious windfall" -- a financial donation to St. Francis Table -- has made the dinner possible, according to Brenda Griffin, who with her husband, Buck, and a core group of other interested parishioners at the Shrine provided the impetus for St. Francis Table to begin last spring. Normally, a simple meal of soup, coffee and a sandwich is served at the Table, which has drawn as many as 425 people on a given Saturday. But this occasion will be special in menu and in other ways, Mrs. Griffin said.

A Christmas tree will be put up Saturday, Dec. 18, and will be decorated. Plans are underfoot to have some special music for the guests on Christmas Day. The serving hours will be changed so that doors will open at noon and stay open until 2 p.m. or so. The turkeys, which have been ordered at wholesale cost, will be cooked in a number of places, including the kitchens of Catholic high schools and St. John Vianney parish. Reportedly, St. Pius X high School will cook one more turkey than Marist, or so the challenge goes. Other cooking will be done in people's homes. Final preparations will begin Christmas Eve morning.

The planning has also taken into consideration those who would like to volunteer to serve on Christmas Day. Recruiting volunteers has been done on a "family" basis, encouraging those who would like to serve to make it part of the day with their family and friends "because we think Christmas is a family day," Mrs. Griffin said. Volunteers will come at about 10:30 in the morning Christmas Day and stay into the afternoon, serving and then helping to clean up.

The Christmas dinner at St. Francis Table has been a part of the vision since April, but the events in between have shaped it as part of a deeply felt Advent season, Mrs. Griffin said, in which parishioners and St. Francis Table families and friends feel more acutely the situation of those in need and the painful anticipation of those awaiting Christmas' new life.

(Those interested in helping with the Christmas dinner or St. Francis Table's ministry may contact Brenda Griffin at 404-237-7379)