Friday Shoot-Out: Places of worship

The idea of the My Town Shoot-Out is to post photos of your local community every Friday. This week's assignment was chosen by Rebecca, from Ambler, PA.

Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.

Emily Dickinson

According to Gallup (2006) Oregon ranks near the bottom of the list of church-going populations in the US. Only Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Vermont have a lower percentage of church attending folks. Having moved here from Alabama, which ranks number 1 on the list, I don't doubt this for a moment. However, our low ranking doesn't mean we are without a variety of churches. It doesn't mean we are without religion. That would be religion defined in a broad, but real, sense.

There are dozens of churches in Corvallis. They range from Catholic to Protestant. Muslim. Jewish. Buddhist. There is a castle-like Presbyterian church, a classic Methodist church, an octagonal Quaker meeting house. There are several evangelical churches housed in pole buildings, and there are two Mormon churches.
The building that I like best is actually a small Russian Orthodox church located on a winding back road at the edge of town, and serving our sizable population of Russian immigrants. If you weren't deliberately trying to get there you would never find it.
I am crazy about its golden onion domes, reaching out of a simple wooden building.

The building is small, tucked into an opening in the woods, and set about with sprawling,fragrant lavender plants.

At the entrance there is a set of bells. Who can resist these?

For some of us, there is a thirst for the spiritual that can only be slaked by getting outside of buildings, and far away from other people.

There are lots of places nearby that meet this need. This one happens to be a beaver pond, located in the foothills of the Coast Range, very near our house. Beavers, hunted to near extinction, are miraculous creatures. I am in awe of them.

The line where the water meets the beavers' dam is like the edge of an altar.

There are other places to go, other churches to attend. They are all amazing. Come visit us, we'll take you there.