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St. Columb's Cathedral
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Monday, 8-September-2003
So on Monday, being confined to exploring Derry in via foot-power and cab, we stopped to see St. Columb's Cathedral. I donated my three pounds or so to be able to take photos of the church. I'm not Catholic, but went to Christian school up through some part of fourth grade and my best friends in fifth and sixth grade were Catholic. This meant going to a lot of Sunday school with them and church on the weekends when I was staying over. Of course it's sort of funny; I lived next door to them but 'staying over' did indeed mean going to church with them. It was an adventure. I had been going to other people's churches for years, whether it was in grade school, or to the church of the Mormon family down at the end of the street when I was a kid, or this family. Even Southern Baptist I think, when I lived in Florida; again, staying over on the weekends and finding myself exposed to all sorts of ideas on Sunday morning. (Or Thursday mornings, in grade school.)
The friends I had in fifth/sixth grade went to Catholic school too, uniforms and all, and so even just going to school functions or commencements involved some manner of religious ceremony. But to me, short of being made fun of for mispronouncing Biblical words (apostle: aa-pahs-tle instead of the uh-...) while reading passages in Sunday school (I loved to read, and I loved to read aloud. I'd read anything!), it wasn't too bad visiting other people's churches. Grade school at the Christian school was much, much, much worse with the emotional and mental punishment that came with it, torture for what would happen if I didn't do the right thing, nightmare images via films shown of how the world would be when I was left behind come judgment day.
So anyway, none of that really mattered in terms of visiting the church in Derry. If I had the luxury of traveling Europe, I'd stop in every church along the way. It was a different architecture, a different place of worship—I suppose I am fascinated by religion both as an institution and the variated beliefs, similarities and differences, across cultures, times, and geography.
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