Steeple Chase

Wesleyan Methodist Church, Actinolite (1864)

There's a knack to it. I don't appear to have it.
I love looking up, trying to capture the communion of steeple - windows, roof treatment, adornment - and sky,  in that moment just before I fall over backwards.

Hazzard's Methodist Church (1857)

The photos don't do justice to the places, and certainly don't capture the Heaven-reaching of their spires, and their church congregations.
Nevertheless, I'll share these photos of some I've encountered lately, and add a reflection.

Burnbrae Presbyterian Church, est. 1836

These are very old churches.
The lives of the people who built them were enormously challenging.
Their faith sustained them through the heart-breaking work of clearing the forests, wrestling livelihoods from uncooperative land. They lost wives in childbed, children to simple illnesses, husbands to cruel accidents, precious livestock to predators and homes to raging fires.

St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, Madoc (1865)

But they built churches. Early on they gathered in homes. Sometimes they met in their rudimentary schoolhouse built for their children's better future. As early as they could, using what they had at their disposal, they built churches.