Stephen Lingwood’s reportage of a new Unitarian chapel and retreat center in the Orkney Islands appeals to me in a lot of ways. While this would be the most northerly outpost for Unitarianism in the British Isles, the Unitarian Unitarian Fellowship of Fairbanks (Alaska) is father north, and perhaps too the small group in St.… Continue reading Orkneys, ho!
Category: Liminal places
Thule, part two
I have written before about Qaanaaq, the palindrome formerly known as Thule, in Greenland. Last night I found this website for the Thule (United States) Air Force Base “next door” to Qaanaaq. The base command has a “lifestyle” suite of pages on its site, including information about accomodation, dining, shopping and the chapel. Nice to… Continue reading Thule, part two
If your parish was in Antarctica
For churches in far-flung places, nobody gets more mileage than the Orthodox. I’ve been poking around the Internet looking at Orthodox Church in America parishes and chapels in remote Alaska (after watching an episode of Deadliest Catch; but more about them later) but then cast my net back to “familiar” grounds: the Antarctic.
Candid lay leadership plan from Episcopalian chaplaincies bishop
Another reason I like out-of-the-way churches (if not so out of the way as Tristan da Cunha or South Georgia Island) is that they tend to cut through to essentials. If there are only a scant number of English speaking Christians in Country X, you had better not appeal to a strict form of churchmanship… Continue reading Candid lay leadership plan from Episcopalian chaplaincies bishop
A South Georgia church, uh, the further, colder one
Tristan da Cunha is a veritable metropolis next to South Georgia Island, which has no permenant residents but a museum and research station, yet more tourists, and countless penguins. The only settlement — if you can call it that — is Grytviken. It has a little church of Norwegian origins, and remarkably enough, witnessed its… Continue reading A South Georgia church, uh, the further, colder one
Report on Tristan da Cunha: pictures and podcast
My regular readers know I have an odd interest in remote places. There’s something fascinating about the romance of adventure and a more immediate, to-the-soil-or-sea way of life: a romance I prefer to observe by Internet. And there’s a resonance of God seeking out the lost or liminal. As a subset, I’m fascinated by Christian… Continue reading Report on Tristan da Cunha: pictures and podcast
The church at the bottom of the world
Every once in a while I go looking for the most liminal church I can find, geographically-speaking. Now I look to Antartica, and find the Chapel of the Snows, at McMurdo Station. That’s the main American scientific station. This chapel is the third there, the last having been destroyed by fire. It is open twenty-four… Continue reading The church at the bottom of the world
Ring-around-the-chancel
Call me silly but I have a fascination with mixed-use (or interfaith) religious architecture with a particular period (post-WWII it seems) feature: turntable altars. This interest was fostered by its odd, gee-wizz, and even its kitch character, but the original inquiry came out of some thought around the appropriate interworking of worship in governmental settings,… Continue reading Ring-around-the-chancel
The church at the end of the earth
There’s a passage of scripture that is a appropriately popular, Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will bear witness for me in Jerusalem, and throughout all Judaea and Samaria, and even in the farthest corners of the earth. That’s a heavy mandate for li’l ol’… Continue reading The church at the end of the earth
Help from the Navy (et alia, with lay persons leading worship)
I was telling a colleague-friend of some Navy resources I’ve found that might make a good basis for equipping and training lay worship leaders and assistants (there are so many names for this ministry, I scarcely know where to begin) and I thought I’d share them here, too. On the other hand, I love to… Continue reading Help from the Navy (et alia, with lay persons leading worship)