Late afternoon on the day before the second live Church Hopping event, I got an email.  The tour guide who was supposed to lead the architecture talk had suffered a heart attack.  He was alright, but he wouldn’t be able to lead the tour.  The person emailing me asked if I could lead it without...

photo (c) Stephanie Nikolopoulos I imagine that all New Yorkers have at least one story involving St. Patrick’s Cathedral, regardless of whether or not they’re Catholic.  I grew up just over the George Washington Bridge, in New Jersey, and the cathedral looms large in my relationship with, and understanding...

photo (c) Stephanie Nikolopoulos Have you ever stopped to really look around your own city?  Have you ever considered the history behind the buildings you pass every day?  Has a church’s beauty ever stopped you in your tracks? This past Saturday, with the support of our very own Burnside Writers...

Image via Wikipedia Some call it an eyesore.  Some may even consider it heretical.  But Don Justo Gallego Martinez’s “garbage” cathedral attracts tourists to Mejorada del Campo, just as the world’s largest crucifix draws people to Indian River, Michigan. Spain has a long history of mosaic art. ...

Victory Hellas!  March 25 is Independence Day for Greece.  To celebrate, I thought I’d bring you church hopping where it all began….   Church: Agia Lavra (Holy Lavra, “Lavra” essentially meaning “monastery”) Location: On Mount Helmos, which is southwest of...

The exterior architecture, showing a rose window, arched window, and vauled roof As a teen in the 90s, I saw the grunge era of Nirvana, Reality Bites, and heroin give way to the club kids scene of techno, Kids, and Special K.  The hallways of my suburban high school teemed with teens wearing platform...

The nave, showing the pews and supportive columns. When I heard that Eric Metaxas was speaking at Calvary Church about his new book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy — A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich, I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to hear him talk and to feature him...

Every other year, Calvin College hosts a Festival of Faith & Writing that brings together some of the brightest writers of our generation whose works Diane shared her homemade hummus illuminate “spiritual understanding, grace, or transcendence.”  In addition to speakers like...

Susan Isaacs and Donald Miller have been doing a lot of church hopping lately.  Through the fall, they were popping in and out of churches across Donald Miller, Susan Isaacs, Stephanie Nikolopoulos, and Sally Lloyd-Jones America to share from their latest books.  When they stopped in New York, they...

In light of St. Patrick’s Day having been this week, let’s take a hop, skip, and a jump across the pond to Ireland to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Location: Dublin, IrelandWebsite: www.stpatrickscathedral.ieArchitect: Various, due to reconstructionBuilt: 1191 [photo of me outside...