The love feast came from the same well as the Church of the Brethren practice and has kept the same order: preparation and self-examination, feetwashing in pairs, a full meal at tables, and then the bread and the cup. In the nineteenth century it was the great social as well as religious event of the year, held in a barn or a large farmhouse, drawing members from a wide area who stayed overnight because they could not get home; the hosting family fed and bedded dozens. As congregations moved into towns and members acquired cars, the overnight element disappeared and in most congregations the meal shrank. Conservative congregations and the Old Order River Brethren still keep the full form.