St. Paul Lutheran Church, Denver Colorado

The purpose of this blog is really to depict churches, not to comment on any one religion or church.   However, whenever you post photographs of varying churches, you are going to sooner or later end up getting into some sort of comment or controversy.

This is a photograph I took quite awhile back, 2012 in fact, and I never completed the post.  The reason is that I don't like to have a hand in creating confusion.  Whenever I post a photograph I always try to look the church up before I post the photo.  In doing that, I found St. Paul's entry to be very confusion at that time, 2012. 

What I found was that the church was Lutheran, and very obviously in the "liberal" Lutheran camp, but it offered a service that mirrored Catholic services.  It was pretty clearly angling for disaffected Catholics who had some reason that they were separating themselves from the Church but who missed what the Mass looked like.  That made me a bit queasy, well more than a bit queasy.

In finding this old photograph, I looked them back up and its more confusing than ever.  They have a Catholic Priest who is offering a Mass on Saturday nights while the Lutheran service is on Sunday.  The website claims that the community at the Church is Catholic and Lutheran and the website suggests, whether it means to or not, that there's no prohibition to the two faiths commingling without restriction.

Well, there certainly is, and neither the Lutheran or the Catholic Church take that position.

Rather, what the site cites to is a declaration by Pope Benedict some years ago that one of Martin Luther's statements was not inconsistent with Catholic belief, if properly understood.  

This gets into an entire really long area of discussion which I'm not going to go down. Rather, however, I'm noting this as this is a pretty old church, but frankly it fits into a certain "liberal" Christian set of beliefs that does not define either faith in the main.  And this stands to be deceptive, particularly for people who are travelers.  If a Church stands in opposition to the main body of its faith, or if it is on the fringe of it, it ought to just flat out state that.  After all, even the two very close "lungs" of the Apostolic Churches, the Catholics and the Orthodox, do not seek to hide their differences from each other.  The "Anglican Catholis", who use the Catholic name as part of their identify, are very blunt on their websites and statements that they are not in union with Rome and do not purport to be Roman Catholic Churches. 

I'm not saying that deception is intentionally being engaged in here, and I'm not commenting on the licitly of the Masses (about which I know nothing), but I am saying that when people take a view that's out of the mainstream on things, they'd do well to note that, least they create problems for others.  In matters of religion, for the Faithful, this is not a small matter.

I'm going to go ahead and post the photo of this church here.  But in doing so, I'm frankly going to note that there's another Catholic Church that's clearly in the Catholic mainstream, right downtown, just a couple of blocks away.  That church, Holy Ghost, is unquestionably Catholic and,  like this Lutheran Church, it also has a very well known social mission, that being to the poor.  I don't know where the nearest Lutheran church is, but I'd note it if I did.

Temple Events Center, formally Temple Emanuel Synagogue

It took me some time to figure out what this building is, or was. Given the styling, I thought perhaps it had been built as an Eastern Rite or Orthodox church.

No, in fact it was a synagogue. This building was the Temple Emanuel Synagogue, built in 1899. I don't know its history beyond that, but today it is an events center and available for various uses.

Photograph with the Catholic Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the background.

Of interest, this building strongly resembles the St. Peter and St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City, which was also originally built as a synagogue.

Observant folks might notice that this post was first made in February 2011, but has now reappeared in November, 2012.  The reason is that I happened to be parked in this neighborhood a couple of days ago and had the opportunity to take photographs of this structure from the sidewalk, as opposed to from inside my vehicle, as the first photo was taken.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver Colorado

This is the Roman Catholic Cathedral for the Archdiocese of Denver. This impressive church is difficult to photograph, due to it's downtown location and towering heights. It was built in 1911-1912.

Mother of God Catholic Church, Denver Colorado

This small Roman Catholic Church is just off downtown Denver. A remarkable thing about this church is it's fairly close proximity, in modern terms, with other Catholic Churches in downtown Denver, however, this one is on the border between the business and residential districts.

This church was built as a Protestant church in about 1900 and saw use by various denominations until the 1940s, when the Archdiocese of Denver purchased it.

A nice history of the Parish can be found here.

St. John in the Wilderness Cathedral, Denver Colorado

This is the Episcopal Cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. Located in Central Denver, construction on the church was started in 1909 and completed in 1911.

These photographs do not do it justice. The cathedral and associated buildings take up an entire city block.

Unidentified, Denver Colorado

Central Denver has a large number of traditional styled churches, of which this is one. Taken from my pickup truck window while stopped at an intersection, I was unable to identify it.