Indeed, some of Harvard’s most illustrious visitors have pressed their lips to Gomes’ china.

“We think of all of our guests as celebrities,” Gomes says, “but some are more celebrated than others.”

Many of Gomes’ special guests, such as the archbishop of Canterbury, have come from the religious communities.

“I had Sister Wendy to tea,” he says in his book-laden study, resting his head on the straight back of a plush armchair and raising his eyebrows above tortoiseshell eyeglass frames. He proudly displays a black-and-white photograph of himself standing with the habit-clad art historian and television personality.

The illustrious television chef Julia Child lived nearby in Cambridge for most of her life, and Gomes often invited her to pour tea on Wednesdays.

Students approaching the tea table would often be quite surprised to find the culinary doyenne presiding over the tea service, he says.

Gomes leans forward in his chair and casts his voice into a tremulous falsetto to imitate Child’s greeting: “How would you like your tea?”

Potential pourers receive a call in early September asking them to pick Wednesday evenings over the course of the term that would be convenient for them, says Helen Fernald. She is deftly serving cups of tea beside a sideboard laden with silverware and a small paperback book titled College Graces of Oxford and Cambridge. Gomes then designates each prospective pourer to serve tea at one party.

Fernald herself is a native Cantabrigian; her father, Roger Merriman, was a history professor and the first master of Eliot House.

“I’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years and I love it,” she says.

The teas, included in the running expenses of Memorial Church, average a cost of $50 per evening, Gomes says. He hosts about 30 teas each year, including every term-time week except for breaks, reading period and exams.

“I wish we had an endowment for tea,” Gomes mused.

He demands that his teas end as briskly as they begin. At exactly 6 p.m. his assistants usher guests toward the front door. “Friends, friends,” someone calls, “we thank you for joining us this week and we hope you’ll come again next week.”

Gomes’ visitors claim their hats and coats from the hallway and emerge once more into the chilly Cambridge night.

Gomes insists on this regular schedule. “The nice thing about tea,” he says, “is that nothing earth-shattering happens.”