[Magdalen] Detroit Again.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

The article on rehabilitation of abandoned homes near Downtown Detroit  MI
in the current issue of the USA monthly National Geographic Magazine,
reminded me to surf through some existing lists of abandoned and  recycled
Detroit churches.
 
The list is long and somewhat appalling because there are so very  many
treasures - Detroit being a relatively wealthy city for so many decades  -
and the buildings are often extraordinarily lovely.  Most have  been
recycled into Baptist churches (probably heavily African-American).   Never,
I suspect, have such congregations worshipped in such sumptuous 
architecture.  The new names dubbed over the more prosaic  classical
Protestant and Roman Catholic names are often quite amusing.   Thank
God they are still used for worship.
 
Of course the same sort of glut of redundant church buildings, some  of
which are the most magnificent in the region, goes on here locally. 
The most beautiful Protestant church in Wilkes-Barre, built in an  Anglican
style with stone and exquisite stained glass (The First Baptist  Church,
associated with the Northern high church Baptists) is now occupied
by an evangelical group that ignores the spacious sanctuary and has
a large projection screen in front.  The most gorgeous RCC is
"Sacred Heart Slovak" with a 200 foot copper clad spire and the whole
complex is scheduled for demolition.
 
So many of the local and the Detroit churches would be a treasure
almost anywhere else.  If only we could transport them intact!
 
Sic transit gloria mundi.
 
 
David Strang.