Competing Churches Intrigue Me

Posted on | October 17, 2008 | 2 Comments

This is the sort of thing I would normally put on the little backwater of my travel blog, but I want to ask a question after having been in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, for most of this week, and I have more chance of getting an answer on this blog

The photo above was taken from the top of the old Vilnius Castle, and shows two very old churches – the Church of St Anne (built on the site of the oldest church in Vilnius) and the Bernardine Church. St Anne’s is the church with the steeples on the right, and the larger Bernardine Church sits behind it. You can see from the photo below just how close the two buildings are – they basically share the same piece of ground.

While I have little interest in religion or in the affairs of churches, I was intrigued by the religious, social, economic or political events that would cause a church to be built cheek-by-jowl with another of the same denomination. Were they built by competing religious orders? Were there competing families, perhaps, trying to display their wealth by sponsoring a bg new church right behind the smaller old one. Or what?

Can anyone tell me the reason?

Technorati Tags: vilnius, bernardine church, st anne’s church, lithuania

Category: education

Comments

2 Responses to “Competing Churches Intrigue Me”

Alan Coady
October 17th, 2008 @ 8:50 pm

I’ve no answer about these two churches but they certainly make those of Holy Corner, Morningside, Edinburgh appear relatively stand-offish – and that’s so out of character for the neighbourhood ( http://www.henniker.org.uk/images/places/local_a/ed_sth/brunt/holy_corner1.jpg )
Gordon McKinlay
October 18th, 2008 @ 7:01 am

I am afraid the answer is usually straight forward. They fell out. When people believe passionately about something they will sometimes lose a sense of reality and common decency when it comes to things of faith. You will probably find that one group in the church believed one thing and fell out with another so went off and formed their own church next door. If possible they would make it bigger and grander in order to rub their neighbour’s noses in it.

As a follower of Jesus myself I cannot say that I am proud of aspects of our Christian heritage. We have often fallen out over the silliest things and ignored the pain and suffering going on all around us. Not really the example given to us in the old book!