There are many places of worship—for many different religions—that have been in use for hundreds or even thousands of years. Although I don’t consider myself to be actively religious, in the typical sense of the term, I was quite moved by many of our visits to churches and cathedrals on our recent travels to the England and Vienna.
Karlskirche is a stunning example of 18th century baroque architecture. It was far more than I could even begin to comprehend in the hour we had there.
I was delighted to find the bulk of the interior under renovation and filled with scaffolding. Why delighted? Because there was also an elevator and stairs that led to the very top of the dome!
It is not difficult to see how simply entering a space like this would cause one to be moved!
In East Anglia we visited St Andrew church in the village of Claxton for a Christmas carol sing. While quite humble compared to Karlskirche, it was still moving to realize the community had gathered here in one form or another for centuries.
Now all of us need to find ways that religions bring us together rather than dividing! How can we have spent centuries in our places of worship and failed to discover how to do that?!
Still Learning To See 