The group was founded by Jai Zilke, a Rutherford resident for 11 years and a member of the church. Zilke said he had been attending the Congregational Church for about a year before he proposed the new group.

"The people were very nice and I enjoyed the service but I still felt alone," he said. "I saw all the different activities and programs [the church hosted]… I was thinking maybe there were other people who needed support [and] a place to have activities."

Zilke spoke with the church’s pastor, Reverend Gregory Rupright, who is openly gay himself and who presided over the first union blessing of a gay couple in Rutherford in July 2006. The two started the new group in September 2007 with a meager five members.

The group serves a need for gay and lesbian members of the community who normally have to turn to New York or other urban areas for like-minded social settings, according to Zilke.

"They were all saying the same thing to me," said Zilke. "They’re looking for a place to go out, have fun and meet other people without having to go to New York."

Since September the group has grown, with as many as 19 people attending some of the group’s recent events. Recent events the group has sponsored include movie nights, a board game night and trips to the Risotto House in Rutherford, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in New York and a karaoke night at the Cage, a gay club in Hoboken.

One member said she was surprised by just how many people from Rutherford have started coming.

"Most of the people live in Rutherford and you would have never known that… I don’t think it’s a large [gay and lesbian] population [in Rutherford], but it’s bigger than I thought it was," she said.

Zilke noted that some of the group’s events have attracted people from as far afield as Belleville, Nutley and Jersey City as well as students from Felician College. The group also boasts a diversity of ages, with the youngest member at 19 and the oldest in their 70s and members who are both single and in relationships.

"It was amazing to have such a diversified group," he said.

Catherine Desmond, a member from East Rutherford who’s taken over as president, said she’s invited straight friends of hers to events as well.

"I asked my friend to go and I told her, ‘You’re not going to get hit on,’" she said. "It’s just a nice place to meet local people and network." Desmond said they hang the rainbow flag outside the church before meetings to show people where the group is.

"Mostly we are friends meeting other friends," said Zilke. "I want to be myself, not in a boastful or in your face kind of way."

One of the members who grew up attending the Congregational Church said she thought it was an ideal place to meet because of the church’s open and affirming status. In a statement posted on the church’s Web site, the congregation "declare[s itself] to be an Open and Affirming church and welcome[s] into full participation members and staff of every sexual orientation just as we extend the same loving welcome to people of every age, race, gender, physical and mental ability, ethnicity and marital and economic status."

However, though the group uses the church as its meeting space and the church’s pastor is himself a member, it isn’t affiliated with the church. Rupright did note, however, that two couples who joined the group have started attending the church since then.

Rutherford is over the state average for households with unmarried same sex couples, according to the 2000 United States Census. Of all households with unmarried couples, the percentage of households with male partners in New Jersey is 6.2 percent and the percentage with female partners is 6.6 percent. In Rutherford those percentages are 17.2 percent and 11.2 percent respectively.

The group’s next meeting is planned for May 9 at the Congregational Church and another night out at the Risotto House is scheduled for May 18.