Driving along in the hills of West Virginia, we stumbled upon "Our Lady of the Pines," more commonly known as "the smallest church in the lower 48 states." You've never seen anything so small. The 24 x 12 foot church has six pews and seats 12 worshippers. Lithuanian immigrant Peter Milkint completed Our Lady of the Pines in 1958, with hopes that the world would come visit. More than 30,000 visitors sign the guest book each year. It should be 30,006 but my husband forgot to sign the book! I am grateful this season for my husband who helps me to remember the past.
6 comments:
that's FUNNY, you guys messed up the count. Next time, sign the book.
CUTE little church. You have such fun things near you.
You'll just have to go back. When the Bach's come for Thanksgiving, perhaps you could take a drive and then everyone could sign the book. It is an adorable church. It would be perfect for those in my church who attend the 8:00 a.m. service--there are usually 10-11 or sometimes less who attend at that time. There is an Episcopal chapel in Sugar Hill, NH that is open only in the summer and is very small--bigger than the WV one. It smells of mothballs because they have to spread mothballs to keep the mice out of there in the winter, and probably squirrels as well. It is a very pretty chapel with beautiful stained glass windows. Uncle D and I went there several years ago when we were staying in the area. As always, you find wonderful places to visit.
CUTE little church. i love places like that.
Amy--
Some updated stats/thoughts on the whole prop 8 thing--courtesy of THE BOARD at BYU, which I mentioned in my "Fu Manchu" post. It really is a great resource.
QDear 100 Hour Board,
The recent spate of questions regarding Proposition 8 has brought this question to mind. It really really bugs me that people are attacking so harshly the Church over this subject, yet they aren't nearly as vociferous about other groups who put a great deal of support behind the proposition as well (for example--the Catholic church). Yet, exit polls show (according to this article: http://www.signonsandiego.com/...) that older demographics overwhelmingly supported the measure, 70% of black voters did as well, 2/3 of people identifying themselves as Christian supported it (and I *highly* doubt all of them were LDS), 60% of married voters and 66% of households with children under 18 also voted in favor. Yet nobody is protesting at nursing homes, black neighborhoods, other churches, or the houses of families with children under 18.
Why is it "acceptable" for them to attack the LDS church over this, but not other groups who also supported the measure?
Direct Link to Question
ADear Reader,
It's not.
Or was that rhetorical?
Maybe they're "mormophobes." (See how fun it is to label those who disagree with you!)
Love,
Waldorf and Sauron
ADear why,
I can think of a few reasons.
(1) Mormons are going to be more upset with the LDS Church because we care more about what our church does than what other churches do.
(2) Non-Mormons who are talking to Mormons are going to bring up the Church because they know they're talking to a Mormon.
(3) Given that there are fifteen times as many Catholics as Mormons in California, Mormons and Utahns provided a disproportionate amount of support for Prop 8.
(4) Given our history of polygamy, it's more ironic for us to support Prop 8 than it is for other organizations to do so.
(5) People still think of us as a weird cult, not an established church, and so they're more likely to attack us because they're already prejudiced against us.
- Katya
ADear you,
I just wanted to add a bit to Katya's third point. There are about 550,000 Church members in California, and 6,321,102 people voted yes on Prop 8 on November 4. This means that even if every member voted for Prop 8 (though, of course, we know they didn't), members of the LDS Church could have accounted for only about 9% of the vote in the affirmative. However, monetary donations from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accounted for between 40 and 50 percent of the donations made to the "Yes on Prop 8" cause. This makes us, as a group, their leading contributor. Nine percent of the vote giving 40-50 percent of the funds seems a bit unbalanced.
That, and we're weird. However, that doesn't make a lot of the stuff that's been happening in the past week okay by any means.
- The Black Sheep
Love the little church...wish I had more time on the computer or do I? I'm enjoying my little baby too much:-)
Cool little church, you always find the neatest adventures.
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