Milton Hill wasn't the most visible among worshipers at Ark Church, Baltimore Sun colleague Erica Green writes. He mostly watched from a spot in the back of the room during a mid-week service, or while doing odd jobs in the church during choir practices.

But at the congregation's first Sunday service since his killing last week, Green writes, Hill's absence was felt from the parking lot to the pulpit.

It was the first Sunday that Ark churchgoers noticed that the grass on the East North Avenue property wasn't meticulously manicured, and that the remnants of weekend trash weren't completely cleared by 6 a.m.

The 70-year-old Hill — whose helpful nature and residence next to the church made him its volunteer caretaker and extra set of eyes for more than a decade — wasn't standing in his usual spot on the landing of his apartment stairs, greeting churchgoers as they walked in.

Instead, his face peered out from a flier that ushers handed out with church bulletins, advertising a vigil and to be held today in honor of his life, and condemnation of his senseless killing.

"Members and neighbors are feeling vulnerable," the Rev. J.L. Carter, senior pastor of Ark Church, said in a Sunday sermon. "Members have said, 'Pastor, what do we do now, after it hit so close to our house?' "

Read more about Milton Hill and Ark Church at baltimoresun.com.