Churches are not bricks and stone - they are pews

I read a letter to the editor in the local paper yesterday in which some guy said that churches and mosques should donate their riches to the survivors of the Asian tsunami, instead of asking adherents to do so. Maybe sell off a cathedral, mosque, synagogue or two.

I thought that this was such a mistaken portrayal of religion that I wrote a letter to the editor myself. I said something to the effect that churches and mosques have donated their riches to the cause – their most precious riches: the money, time, hard work, prayers, and faith of their believers; because it is people who are the churches and mosques.

As to selling them off, I noted that these buildings would be needed more than ever, to be a place of sanctuary and healing, as the survivors attempt to come to grips with what has happened. No cathedral or mosque sold to Bill Gates could offer such a thing.

Sadly though, the impression people have that churches and mosques are hierarchies of flighty rich reverends, crazed imams, and capricious cardinals is all too prevalent. And yet, if you look at any magnificent church edifice in Europe, what is so incredibly awesome about it is that ordinary people – parishioners making far less than we do today – donated their time and money to make these magnificent buildings possible. I remember reading a story about the Anglicans of Liverpool and the magnificent cathedral they built there early in the twentieth century, all funded by a town plagued with chronic poverty and unemployment.

That's not to say that there are not rich reverends and capricious cardinals of course. But a church is a community of faith; you don't have a church just because you have a chapel and a cleric. Churches are places where lives are lived communally. The same faces that helped out with your wedding are the ones who were there to see your kids baptized.

We - the ordinary Jacks and Jills – we are the churches. We are the body of Christ – a pretty amazing thing, isn't it?