American Country Churches

The country church may be ""one of the most enduring American images,"" writes Morgan in his engaging introduction to this coffee-table study. Yet, poring over Kurzaj's pellucid photographs, one is most struck by the astonishing diversity of Christianity in America. Quaker or Shaker, Czech Catholic or Russian Orthodox, Episcopal or Presbyterian, every house of worship depicted in this beautiful volume is interesting both for its architecture and for the community that it was built to serve. For example, the First African Baptist Church of Georgia's Cumberland Island is a small, stark structure, covered by a red pressed-tin roof and held up by walls of white clapboard. Inside, the pews look battered, and a table on the altar displays little more than a rough-hewn, wooden cross. The beauty of this church lies in its austerity, but the story of its congregation is more complex: it was founded by the descendents of slaves, some of whom worked as low-paid help in a nearby hotel. (Another layer of complexity is added when one learns that the church was used by John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Carolyn Bessette for their wedding ceremony.) A different kind of simplicity is evinced in Rhode Island, where the stone exterior and gothic windows of the Saint Columba's Chapel purposefully recall 13th-century England. The chapel's tasteful, Arts and Crafts interior ""replete with Tiffany stained glass"" reveals, however, that it is very much a late 19th-century construction. Of course, Morgan has included more ornate country churches in his volume--36 are presented in all. But whatever the architectural style, each of these churches exemplifies one thing: the stunning range of expression that results when a community is left to pursue its own way of worship in peace.