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 hours a day, and I rather gather residents go there to veg and have a cup of tea (since I’ve seen that service mentioned twice in so many words on McMurdo sites.)

The chapel, picture found at  http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/polarsea/images/ArchivePix/McMurdoChurch.jpg

Most services are volunteer-led, but a Catholic priest comes in from New Zealand one month a year. There seems to have been a role for Navy chaplains, but like most things about daily life down there it is hard to get firm information. The “my life in” sites tend to be pretty old, preserved as they are as Scott’s camp.

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

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