MILFORD -- Snow was falling in the dark outside, but in the church there was no sound as the six drummers gathered to quiet themselves for the evening's music.

"We can start by taking a moment to relax, to welcome ourselves into this space," said David Curry of Uxbridge, who leads the monthly drumming session in First Unitarian Universalist Church on Pine Street.   "It's completely open-ended.   As we drum, if there's a direction you want to explore in, give it a try," he added.

The directions the drummers explore help them let off steam from busy days, but also draws them into connections with each other and into a meditative space apart from the empty church they were sitting in.

After a brief silence, Curry struck the center of his West African djembe drum with a cupped hand, and beat out a slow, steady rhythm.   Then the small group, circled around candles, lifted their hands to the drums of all sizes, on their laps or resting on the floor, and began to play.

Beside Curry, Heidi Trefonas of Medway beat a small drum with sticks, ringing out sharp tones into the church.   The others played with their hands, or mallets, as well:   Bill Rodriguez, an engineer from Milford; Don Guyton, a semi-retired office manager from Hopedale; Ellen Reneau, a nurse from Milford; and Eileen conlin of Hopedale who works for a pharmaceutical company.

The sound rose and swelled as the drummers changed rhythms and riffed off each other, then subsided, then grew again.   At last, after a quarter of an hour, the sound was as soft as rain, and ceased altogether.

"As the energy rises and falls, you can either spur it on, or let it percolate down," Curry explained.   "You never know what will come out."

"Do your hands get tired?" asked Trafonas, turning to Curry.   "They get a little numb, but when you lose yourself in the ecstacy, it doesn't matter," he said, laughing.

But beyond the numbness, the experience is a way for the drummers to forget the day's troubles.   "It allows your mind to disengage from the day's events - it's meditation in action," said Rodriguez, holding an Irish drum called a bodhran in his lap.   "If you really meet, you're listening deeply."

Trefonas agreed.   "You can't do it on your own," she said.   "It can take you totally away - you create something."

For Eileen Conlin, the group provides a fresh way to deepen her spiritual life.   "I was born and raised Catholic, but I'm always looking for a more creative way to live my life on a daily basis," she said, holding a small, shallow hand drum, her pocketbook beneath her chair.   "I've seen drumming advertised before, and I said, 'That's exactly what I want'."

Curry, who works for Milford electronics company THAT Corporation, began the group last fall, after participating in a circle in Sturbridge.   But that circle did things a bit differently.   "At the time of the full moon, we would build a bonfire by the lake, and it was beautiful to see the moon rising above the trees.   As distant as the moon may be, it has an effect on us.   It rises the tides, but it rises something in us too." Curry said.   Of course, scheduling drumming circles on the lunar calendar had it's pitfalls, too.   "(The date) was always changing," Curry said.

There's no bonfire in First Unitarian Universalist Church, but the candles in the center of the group hold some of that power.   "The American Indians would remember the four directions, east, west, north, and south, and we bring that into this room," he said, explaining the significance of the four candles.   "And it's nice to focus on that light."

Then the group swapped drums, Rodriguez began a beat for the others to follow, and the rhythm began again.