A Year of Sundays

I SPENT A YEAR GOING TO CHURCH SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO. 

Once upon a time, a now-ex-girlfriend and I hit up a different church each week. Afterward, we each wrote a blog post about it, separately, sort of like Siskel and Ebert. Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Spiritualist, Buddhist and beyond, we didn't care. We just dropped by with notepad, camera and three kids in tow. Our relationship didn't stand the test of time, but I'm happy to say some of my writing does. It was a fun, cathartic project. It also won a Portland Best Reads award from Willamette Week. Feel free to start with my trip to the Kingdom Hall:

Crashing the Memorial: Better than a 1000 Therapy Sessions Spent Elsewhere

Jehovah’s Witnesses, Disfellowshipping and the Art of Civil Disobedience

O.G. Christian

Ash Wednesday: Because Sunday Just Isn’t Enough (The Catholics)

The Grotto: Sinning Ain’t No Picnic (The Catholics)

A Church Doing Everything it Can to Make Itself Useless (In a Good Way) (The Catholics)

Taizé—You’re it! (The Episcopalians)

Pentecostal Services at Trinity Episcopal–FTW! (The Episcopalians)

It’s All Greek To Me (Greek Orthodox)

Other Christian

Oh, the Places You’ll Go When You Join Sunset Presbyterian! (Sunset Presbyterian)

Righteous Jazz on a Sunday Morning (Westminster Presbyterian Church)

A Brush Prairie Home Companion (Apostolic Lutheran)

Um, Wow: It’s The Imago Dei Show, Starring Rick McKinley! (Imago Dei "Community" Church)

AMEZ Church: Comfort food for the soul (A.M.E. Zion)

First Christian Church: A Church White People Like (The Very First Christian Church. Who knew?)

Calisthenics for Christ (Portland Pentecostal Church)

Getting My Fill at Theophilus Church (Indie Christian)

Celebrating Memorial Day at the Church on the Mountain (Lumberjack Indie)

Visit the Church Led by Pastor Frank Bossypants (City Bible Church)

Observing the High Holy Day of Gay Pride (Metropolitan Community Church of Portland)

The Mild Bunch: Mill Plain United Methodist Church (The Methodists)

Portland’s Best Live Jazz + Church: Who Could Ask for Anything More? (Augustana Lutheran Church)

Martians for Jesus Invade! (Mars Hill Church)

Attention shoppers! Looking for a helluva church at heavenly prices? (Living Hope Church)

Off-Christian

What We Did on Our Summer Vacation (The Mormons)

There’s Something About Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science)

Beyond Christian

Are you lonesome tonight? (24-Hour Church of Elvis)

She Blinded Me with Scientology (Wackadoodle, Inc.)

Now Boarding, Flight 112 to Hare Krishna! (Hare Krishna)

In Which I am Nearly Seduced by the Siren Call of Reform Judaism (Congregation Beth Israel)

In a Universe of Infinite Possibilities, It’s Inevitable That There Would be a Church of Alice. (Alice Street Spiritualist Church)

The Quakers—Not Just for Breakfast Anymore (Religious Society of Friends)

ADF Druidry: It’s Not Nice to Fool (Around with) Mother Nature (Neo-paganism)

Let’s Put the “Universalist” Back in “Unitarian,” Shall We? (Unitarian Universalist)