Church of the Week: Traveler's Chapel at Wall Drug

This week's "church of the week" here on the Desperate Pastor blog is the "traveler's chapel" at Wall Drug, the sprawling tourist attraction on Highway 16A in Wall, South Dakota, sixty miles east of Mount Rushmore. 

The lovely Robin and I visited it with friends just last week, and it was a haven of quiet and solitude in the otherwise bustling establishment. It is said to be fashioned after the chapel at New Melleray Abbey, a Cistercian (Trappist) monastery near Dubuque, Iowa. Somewhere I read that, while it is not a church, services (as well as concerts and other events) are sometimes held there. 

At the back of the chapel just inside the entrance were boxes of travel-size New Testaments, offered for free. 

It was a refreshing touch of sanctity in swirling mass of humanity and commercialism, and I'm so glad the lovely Robin pointed it out to me and made sure I didn't miss it. 

Church of the Week: The Salvation Army, Rapid City, SD

What a lovely Sunday morning worship experience the lovely Robin and I enjoyed yesterday at The Salvation Army in Rapid City, South Dakota.

I took the photo below after a stimulating adult Sunday school class and ten minutes or so before the morning service ("Holiness Meeting," as it is called) began. The small chapel (capacity 113) wasn't packed but did contain a healthy crowd of all ages by the time things began.

After a brief presentation to the corps officer (pastor) and area coordinators by Major Randy Hellstrom, Aux. Capt. Michelle Johnson led a short observance and prayer in connection with the Annual Day of Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking. Majors Randy and Kathy Hellstrom led a period of singing, followed by a prayer and another congregational song. Major Kathy Hellstrom played a beautiful and inspiring piano arrangement as an offertory, and eighteen-year-old Cheyenne Black gave his testimony. Majors Hellstrom sang a wonderful duet, and then I got to preach! It was a blessed time of worship and fellowship, in spite of my preaching!

The Rapid City Salvation Army is ably led by corps officers Captains Nathan and Michele Harms, who are clearly doing a fine job. It is located at 405 North Cherry Avenue in Rapid City.

Church of the Week: Huber Heights (OH) First Church of God

The lovely Robin and I, joined by our daughter Aubrey and son-in-law Kevin and their youngest child, Avery, had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship yesterday at Huber Heights First Church of God in--wait for it--Huber Heights, north of Dayton, Ohio.

We were there on that particular Sunday because our old and dear friend, Bill Riley, was "candidating" for the senior pastor position at this church. We were warmly greeted multiple times before we got to the sanctuary. We sat with Lorraine and Courtney on the front row during the 10:30 a.m. service, which was led by a full worship team (keyboard, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and three vocalists). I especially enjoyed the drummer, a young man who was on his game. 

Bill preached on "Living Like Jesus in the Community," from Luke 19:1-10, and did a wonderful job. I'm always on pins and needles when Bill preaches because you just never know what he's going to say or do. He gave the assembled crowd of (I'm guessing) two hundred or so good reason to affirm the search committee's choice for him as their next senior pastor, and lo and behold, after a congregational meeting that followed the service, they did!  

Of course, while waiting for the congregational meeting to end, I snooped--er, toured--around the church a little, and it is an impressive facility, lovingly maintained. I especially liked the fact that the church library is actually a library, with books on all four walls. Yea for them! 

I'm sure it won't be our last visit to this church. We'll be happy to return often. 

Huber Heights First Church of God worships at 6900 Brandt Pike in Huber Heights, Ohio.

Church of the Week: Harbison Chapel, Grove City, PA

On a recent visit to Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania (see here and here), I was so pleased to find Harbison Chapel on the school's campus open at midday.

The chapel, in the center of the campus, was built by the sons of Samuel P. Harbison as a memorial to their father, who served the college as a trustee.

The interior is beautified by hand-carved woodwork and brilliant stained glass windows. It is the campus home to chapel services, convocations, and Sunday vespers, and hosts frequent and numerous weddings throughout the year. It is a stately treasure, and I'm glad I got to visit it and pray in it, however briefly.

Church of the Week: Stave Church in Epcot Center, Orlando, FL

This installment in the Desperate Pastor's recurring "Church of the Week" feature is something different. It is a replica of a Stave Church in Epcot Center at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, which I visited on a May vacation with the family.

Norwegians first began to build stave churches around 1050, as Christianity first began to take hold there during the reign of King Olaf II (995-1030 A.D.). The woodworking craft that flourished in Norway made beautiful, enduring wooden churches that combined Christian symbols and Viking images (such as dragon heads, seen on the eaves above, and the incredible work surrounding the door, below). 

The example at Epcot is, of course, a recreation. But while other people throughout Europe built wooden churches, only Norway's are still standing. Twenty-eight of the 1,000 stave churches built there in the Middle Ages are still standing today.  

Below is a video showing the displays inside the structure: 

Church of the Week: St. Patrick Church, San Francisco, CA

On a recent visit to San Francisco (with the lovely Robin and our grandchildren, Miles and Mia, above), I took an opportunity to pay a quick visit to the historic St. Patrick Church, seen in the background of the photo above. 

This Roman Catholic church, on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets, dates to California Gold Rush days. An earlier church building was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is sometimes called "the most Irish church in America." Its Irish flavor is apparent not only in its name but also in the Connemara marble of the church's pillars and interior walls, imported from Ireland, and in the stained glass windows that trace Irish history from pagan days to the time of St. Patrick, and depict the patron saints of each of Ireland's thirty-two counties.

The present building, which church deacon Virgil Capetti describes as modified English Gothic, or Gothic Revival, goes back to 1914. Today the church serves a multi-generational and multi-ethnic population, including Latino and Filipino residents. I took in just a minute or two of the homily during the 12:00 service.

St. Patrick Church is located at 756 Mission St. in San Francisco.

Church of the Week: Epic Church San Francisco

The lovely Robin and I, while visiting our California kids and grandkids this past weekend, visited Epic Church in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.
The church meets in a unique location, in an alley (Stevenson "Street"), on the lower level.
The digs were not spacious but they make the most of the space they have. They offer coffee in their lobby, which of course I consider a mark of a successful church.
The worship team on this morning was led by my son and daughter-in-law (they were subbing for the church's usual worship leader) and so was inspirational on multiple levels. Seriously, the Spirit was there and moving in and on me, for sure.
I loved the Epic Church experience. The welcome was warm. The message, by lead pastor Ben Pilgreen (above) was excellent. The mission and vision were clear and compelling. The details (like the one-sheet program of the week and combination contact card/offering envelope) were attended to. And the worshiping saints were a diverse crowd in every respect. I left encouraged and enthused and blessed.

Epic meets at 250 Stevenson Street (off 3rd Street), San Francisco, CA 94103. The church website is http://www.epicsf.com.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Church of the Week: Salvation Army Kroc Center, Dayton, Ohio

Last Sunday, the lovely Robin and I visited (for the first time, hard to believe), the Dayton, Ohio, Kroc Center of The Salvation Army, in the company of our dear friends, Larry and Janet Ashcraft. We arrived just as the Sunday morning "Holiness Meeting" was getting started in the spacious and beautiful auditorium of this amazing facility. We were treated to a stirring testimony, worship music, and a strong Bible message by a friend we hadn't seen in many years, Envoy Van Wirth. 

Rather than taking a photo as worship was going on, I waited until we had completed a tour generously given by our host, Major Tom Duperee, the Kroc Center administrator, after the congregation had mostly cleared out.

We could not have been more impressed at the amazing services being offered--and more being envisioned and planned--on the Kroc Center campus. Learning programs, athletic opportunities, music and drama, senior services, and more are available in the several beautiful buildings of the center. 

The Dayton Kroc Center is located at 1000 N. Keowee Street in--you guessed it--Dayton, Ohio.

Church of the Week: College Hill Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio

I had the honor and joy last Saturday of officiating a wedding at College Hill Presbyterian Church, in Cincinnati.

The lovely Robin and I have worshiped in this church (mostly in the 80s) and attended several weddings there over the years, but this was the first wedding I officiated there, if memory serves. And it could not have been a more beautiful wedding.

The church dates to April, 1853, when thirty-three people formed the congregation. The oldest part of the church today--the sanctuary--was dedicated on January 4, 1953. I took the photo above on Friday, before the wedding rehearsal.

I also took photos of the six stained glass windows in the ambulatories flanking the sanctuary. They (and windows in the balcony, which I never entered) are memorials given at the time of a 1951 remodeling of the church. They depict six parables of Jesus: the Pharisee and the Publican, the Good Samaritan, the Net of Fishes, the Vineyard, the Sower, and the Lost Sheep.

College Hill Presbyterian is located at 5742 Hamilton Avenue (just south of North Bend Road) in the Cincinnati community of College Hill. It is a beautiful church building that serves an active congregation and community.

Church of the Week: Prayer Room at the Cove, Asheville, NC

I passed it at least a dozen times before a friend pointed out to me that there was a prayer room on the second floor of the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, in Asheville, North Carolina.

I was there for the Writers Advance Boot Camp in February (a wonderful event which you should plan to attend next year), dashing between teaching sessions and critiquing and coaching appointments with writers, when she asked me if I had seen the prayer room.

It is a beautiful room, sensitively furnished and perfectly oriented, with a scenic view from the kneeling bench. What a wonderful setting for prayer--albeit open-eyed prayer, because who could close his or her eyes to pray when such a view is available?

Church of the Week: Chatlos Memorial Chapel, Asheville, NC

This past weekend I paid a short but happy visit to Chatlos Memorial Chapel, on the grounds of the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, North Carolina. It was given to the training center in memory of William F. Chatlos by the foundation that bears his name. 

This beautiful chapel (in a wooded setting) is constructed out of blue granite stone, hand-hewn by local craftsmen. Its steeple reaches eighty-seven feet above the chapel's roofline.

Its antique pews are imported, from the Royal London Society for the Blind. The chandeliers are handcrafted wrought iron.

A balcony anteroom offers worship participants a place to pray before entering the chapel. Such a gorgeous structure, clearly designed and constructed with loving, attentive, thoughtful care.

Church of the Week: Wayfarers Chapel, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Wayfarers Chapel is a gorgeous, unique chapel on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
It was designed by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was built in 1951. I love how Wright designed it to incorporate the redwood trees as architectural elements, and the fusion of wood, glass, and stone throughout....like the baptismal font (which was added in 1964):

Man, if I lived in that area, I would pray her as close as possible to every single day.

Church of the Week: The Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

This week's church is among the oldest in Christendom, because it rests atop the grotto that has been revered since the first century by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus. It's the Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem. (I've featured this church a couple times before on this blog, but thought it would be good to revisit it, in honor of the coming Feast of Christmas).

Below (in a photo taken in 2000, one of the four times Robin and I have so far visited this church), my kids (Aubrey and Aaron) prepare to enter the church (behind their cousin, Elissa) through the Door of Humility, a small rectangular entrance to the church which was created in Ottoman times to prevent carts being driven in by looters, and to force even the most important visitor to dismount from his horse as he entered the holy place. The doorway was reduced from an earlier Crusader doorway, the pointed arch of which can still be seen above the current door. The outline of the Justinian square entrance can also be seen above the door.

The Basilica is a rectangle 177 ft. long, the nave is 86 ft. wide, and the transept is 117 ft. Entering the Church, one can notice 4 rows of pillars, 44 in total, 20 ft. high, and made of the white-veined red stone of the country with white marble Corinthian capitals.

A short history of the church: In 326, Constantine and his mother St. Helena commisioned a church to be built over the cave where Jesus was born. This first church, dedicated on May 31, 339, had an octagonal floor plan and was placed directly above the cave. In the center, a 4-meter-wide hole surrounded by a railing provided a view of the cave. Portions of the floor mosaic survive from this period. St. Jerome lived and worked in Bethlehem from 384 AD, and he was buried in a cave beneath the Church of the Nativity.

The Constantinian church was destroyed by Justinian in 530 AD, who built the much larger church that remains today.The remnants of the octagonal building which covered the Grotto of the Nativity can still be seen in the Armenian Chapel.

In 1852, shared custody of the church was granted to the Roman Catholic, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox churches. The Greeks care for the Grotto of the Nativity, pictured below, where a silver star marks the birthplace of Jesus.

Church of the Week: St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, Glendale, Ohio

A few weeks ago, I attended a family funeral at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Glendale, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. The church building is a striking sandstone structure with a red tile roof and a square crenellated bell tower. 

Worshipers entering through the front doors find themselves in the narthex, which on this occasion was quite crowded. The three slightly sloping aisles in the church are also quite narrow, but it is a beautiful setting. A barrel-vaulted ceiling is divided into squares by white beams. Plaster stations of the cross line the walls. The arch above the sanctuary carries gold letters on a blue background with “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary” in Latin (referring to the archangel Gabriel, to whom the parish is dedicated). A beautiful rose window shines into the sanctuary from the rear wall.

St. Gabriel's is located at 48 West Sharon Road in the lovely Cincinnati suburb of Glendale.

Church of the Week: The Prayer Corner at Christ Church, Cincinnati OH

On a guided tour following my Sunday worship at Christ Church Cathedral a couple weeks ago, I was delighted by the "prayer corner" our docent made sure we visited. It is tucked away, literally, in a corner, but is nonetheless inviting. The altar was relocated here when the main sanctuary was renovated, and the colorful gold-flecked Tiffany ceramic tiles surrounding it (just distinguishable, I hope, in the photo above) were rescued from the apse where they once filled the wall behind the altar. Beautifully lighted and lovingly maintained, I wished I could have spent a prayer session there. Maybe someday.


(Please feel free to share this post with others using the Twitter, Facebook, and other buttons below. You can also subscribe to this blog in your blog reader or enter your email address at top right to receive posts via email)

Church of the Week: Centennial Chapel, Christ Church, Cincinnati OH

On my recent visit to Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati (see here), I was delighted to be taken on a tour of the church, without which I may never have seen the church's beautiful Centennial Chapel.

The Centennial Chapel opened in 1917, the year of the church's centennial. During World War I and World War II, it was open to the public twenty-four hours a day. After World War II, it was re-dedicated as a memorial chapel for all fallen soldiers. 

The side altar (above) contains a painting of the Holy Family that has been attributed to Rubens, the Flemish Baroque artist. 

Opposite the main altar in the chapel is a tapestry created from a Raphael sketch of the miraculous draught of fishes. 

It also happened that I got to see the Holtkamp organ in the Centennial Chapel the day before it (the console and pipes) was scheduled to be disassembled and donated to Trinity Lutheran Church in Medina, New York! 

The Centennial Chapel is the site of Christ Church's 8 a.m. Sunday Holy Eucharist Rite, as well as the weekly "Music Live at Lunch" programs presented every Tuesday, I believe. The acoustics in the chapel must be amazing. 

It is a lovely setting and I would love to worship someday in this distinctly medieval chapel. 

(Please feel free to share this post with others using the Twitter, Facebook, and other buttons below. You can also subscribe to this blog in your blog reader or enter your email address at top right to receive posts via email)