Houses of worship

You can only imagine the power and beauty of the music from this massive pipe organ, or, for that matter, the sheer spectacle of worship in the church it's in--a cathedral in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I really do love cathedrals, the massive ones like throughout Europe, but also the big ones here in the States, like this one in St. Paul. I was raised a full-bore Protestant, but when I step into Roman Catholic churches, my breath stops, almost always, even the ones much smaller, like this one in rural South Dakota, the Cathedral of the Prairie. 

Or this one in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

I am a catholic, ultimately--or at least I confess to being one every Sunday in church--"I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints. . ." But I was baptized in a Protestant church in the Calvinist tradition that looked much more like this:

Few accouterments, no relics, no chandeliers, no altar, hardly stunning. 

No matter. Last week I read about a Wesleyan church in Seneca Falls, New York. This place. Nary a panel of stained glass, nothing but bare walls, not a sculpture in sight. 

On July 19, 1848, the first suffragette conference was held here. Most of the attendees were Quakers and abolitionists; all of them were fiery advocates for women's rights, among them Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 

The story goes that when Ms. Stanton showed up, there were more than a few men and women milling around outside in the July heat. The church was locked and no one had a key. The heat was stifling, and no one--needless to say--was wearing shorts. It was 1848, and the Civil War was still a ways down the road. 

But these women were not to be denied, so some of them hoisted a 12-year-old boy up off the ground high enough to crawl through a window to open the place up. At least they could sit down and turn on the AC. Well, at least they could sit down. 

It's a church. It's not a cathedral. But like Amsterdam's Westerkerk, the Wesleyan Church of Senaca Falls today is a national monument. What began here in this plain house of worship changed the world. 

The God we worship is never as small as we'd like to make Him.