McLeansboro’s Churches

by Joseph Bottum

A postcard from turn-of-the-century McLeansboro, Illinois:Do these designs say anything about the denominations? I’d like to say yes, but I can’t quite see it.Rating: 50 out of . . . . Continue Reading »

27 Jul 2009

Quick Rising

by Joseph Bottum

Last December, an Orthodox church was built in a day in Moscow—and another in Kiev and another in Minsk, all to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in Russia.Or maybe it was even faster. Here’s how to build a church in 30 seconds: Rating: 65 out of . . . . Continue Reading »

27 Jul 2009

Sixteen Years Ago Today: Excerpts from an Unintentional Conversion Diary

by Sally Thomas

Really it’s a travel diary, and I’d forgotten all about it. In the summer of 1993, expecting our first child, my husband and I spent three weeks in France and Germany. Our aim I suppose was to prove to ourselves that having children wasn’t going to tie us down. We’d been . . . . Continue Reading »

12 Jul 2009

Aaaaand They’re Off

by Sally Thomas

Bad Church Art at The CrescatYeesh. And I’m not one to point fingers, either, because my own parish church, though I love it dearly, looks like a prefab office plaza dropped from a helicopter into the middle of a pasture. The Angel of the Perpendicular Style passed it right on over, and then . . . . Continue Reading »

7 Jul 2009

Vocations Watch: Dominican and Carmelite Sisters

by Sally Thomas

The Anchoress has posted this beautiful video of the Nashville Dominicans, whose postulant classes, like those of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, have been overflowing in recent years. Meanwhile, we — our parish, that is — were visited recently by . . . . Continue Reading »

2 Jul 2009

Catechesis 101

by Sally Thomas

I have just said yes to Father’s generous offer of an opportunity to teach the First Communion class, and I’m not a little tied up in knots. First of all, when Father asked me, I looked around to see whom else he might have been addressing: I haven’t been Catholic all that long, . . . . Continue Reading »

29 Jun 2009

eBaywatch: The Orthodox Channel

by Sally Thomas

Save these from the ironically tasteful (or tastefully ironic) entrance hall. Please. [Rating: 100/100] . . . . Continue Reading »

26 Jun 2009

eBaywatch II: Church Goods Rescue Effort

by Sally Thomas

In this season of ordinations, I’m sure some of you out there are searching for gifts for the ordinands in your lives. Rather than giving a brand-spanking-new chalice, crucifix, statue or vestment, why not rescue some church good which has lost its original home? For example, save these . . . . Continue Reading »

25 Jun 2009

eBaywatch

by Sally Thomas

It’s a beauty, a symbol of faith handed down to us from the days of Roman persecution, when Christians identified each other via the sign of the largemouth bass. He is cheerful-looking, I must say. And he appears very fetching beside the two rolls of Scotch tape in the penultimate photograph. . . . . Continue Reading »

25 Jun 2009

It’s That Time

by Sally Thomas

Our local Sunday paper consists of about eleven pages, excluding classified ads, at least four of which are devoted to “Church News.” Not that “Church News” is all that’s happening in our town by any means: we also have blackberry growers, flash floods, high-speed car . . . . Continue Reading »

23 Jun 2009