In the beginning

I was brought up going to church each Sunday at Christ the King parish in Northwest Detroit. CK is a great place, and as I've made my rounds of the Roman Catholic churches in Detroit I'm learning there are few places quite like it.

Although I love my parish, like most young adults I go through phases of going to church and not. For the past few years it has been far more not. While maintaining a private spirituality and feeling God's presence in nature, I do miss attending mass.

My boyfriend, Chris, was also in the same boat. An active member of St. Mary's student parish in Ann Arbor in the past, it had been a few years since he'd been to church. Early in our relationship we went to mass at a suburban church with a large active congregation. Despite all the people there, we did not feel any connection to the priest, other parishioners, or even the building.

Over a year later we decided to give it another try, but this time we decided not to try one church, but to try them all! One thing we decided early was that we agreed the old church buildings were much more attractive to us. We wanted to see the oldest, grandest, most historic church buildings in Detroit, and other cities and what better way than to celebrate mass there?

Our "church hopping" adventure coincided with the most holy season, Lent. Going at such a special time made it all the more meaningful. Since then we visited eight new parishes for mass and others for Fish Fry and other festivities. Unfortunately (for me) Chris moved to South Florida earlier this year which means now I church hop alone here and he is searching for a good parish there.

I wish I could have started this months ago when visiting the churches was fresh in my mind, but I'll have to rely on memory. Also, I unfortunately never took pictures (I'm a little leery of taking pictures in church, but I'll try to get over that), so I'll try to find pictures posted on open sharing sites to go along with each visit. Of course, pictures only go so far, I hope some readers will be inspired to visit these grand places themselves.