Sparks House, above, the residence of Rev. Peter J. Gomes, is the site of weekly teas during term time.

A few pedestrians diverge suddenly from the stream of 5 p.m. foot traffic on Kirkland Street and walk briskly up a driveway lit by the warm glow from Sparks House’s enormous windows.

They huddle in their coats, silent, at the stone steps of the yellow and white home. Streams of mist pour from their mouths. At last someone speaks. “It’s a perfect day for tea,” he says.

The front door opens to reveal a hallway decked in intricately patterned wallpaper and framed paintings; a young woman invites the guests into a rose-colored parlor. Plates of cookies, brownies and small sandwiches cover a coffee table at one end of the room.

“Would you like some tea?” asks an elderly woman seated at the head of a long dining table. Her gentle Boston elocution draws the question into a lyrical arc. A silver samovar and a matching spouted pot rest before her on the table like gleaming chess pieces.

Guests in the rapidly filling parlor know what is expected: they accept a saucer and wander among armchairs initiating conversations. Some of them have been taking tea for years at Sparks House, nested behind Memorial Hall.

One of the hidden gems of Harvard life, this tea, hosted by Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church Peter J. Gomes in his home on Wednesdays, offers students an opportunity to mingle with the University’s most colorful luminaries and eccentrics.

Gomes’ tea parties have become a local institution. Alumni and past University affiliates who return to Cambridge can count on the weekly tea even if they hardly recognized the changed University says Gomes, who is also Plummer professor of Christian morals.

The archbishop of Canterbury, visiting Harvard, once pronounced tea at Sparks House better than tea parties at Oxford and Cambridge, Gomes says.

He admits a penchant for the genteel social environment his teas foster.

“I’m not a cocktail-party man,” explains Gomes.

He makes a point of meeting each of his guests, most of whom hear about the teas from friends or colleagues.

“I must speak to everybody and I must greet everybody,” he says.

Gomes regards his teatime visitors, even those whom he does not know, as his personal guests. Everyone who joins him for tea must sign a large register in the hallway before leaving.

“Peter is a great host,” says the Rev. Douglas Bond, a local resident who has been coming to Wednesday tea for more than four years.

Other guests glance around the room expectantly before Gomes arrives. “I wonder where the Reverend Professor is,” one visitor says.