Originally published at crisis magazine
We have a lot of spaceship churches in these parts, here in Northern Virginia, lots of churches in the round. If they look like churches, which most of them really don’t, they look like they may have been Protestant of a certain vintage.
The three local churches we attend on Sunday or daily are perfect examples. Our parish, St. Catherine of Siena, is set on a marvelous piece of pricey ground in Great Falls. What a wonderful setting for something beautiful. Instead, they put up a low-slung bunker-type thing, no shape to it from the outside, flat roof.
We sometimes attend Christ the Redeemer, which can only be described as a massive barn. From the outside, along Route 7, you see the old portion of the church that looks somewhat monastic. Still, though, it is a barn on the order of 50,000 square feet.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Not far from there is St. Thomas à Becket. When we first moved here in 2013, we went to Mass there. It was in the church hall, and there were no kneelers. They renovated the sanctuary, and it can only be described
